While stock photography has widely become synonymous with bland imagery marked by a stark disillusionment with reality, the internet has begun to gradually reclaim these once discarded images and mould them into high-quality meme culture material.
Curated by video game journalist Andy Kelly, Dark Stock Photos is a hilarious Twitter account that mockingly celebrates the absurdity of stock imagery.
Sourcing pictures from popular stock photography platforms like Shutterstock and iStock, the parody collection features numerous photos that tried to convey a bleak message too hard, but failed miserably in the process.
While the Dark Stock Photos account covers a rather broad thematic range, one thing all these images have in common is the pitifully contrived manner in which they have been staged.
The <3 of EU tech
The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!
There you can find bizarrely entertaining images like these:
— Dark Stock Photos (@darkstockphotos) June 2, 2017
— Dark Stock Photos (@darkstockphotos) June 5, 2017
— Dark Stock Photos (@darkstockphotos) June 6, 2017
— Dark Stock Photos (@darkstockphotos) June 2, 2017
— Dark Stock Photos (@darkstockphotos) June 2, 2017
Since launching last week, the parody account has already featured over 40 ludicrously tacky photos, amassing a following of more than 7,000 people in the process.
For more amusingly bad pics, you can follow Dark Stock Photos on Twitter by clicking here.
And if you happen to be a passionate stock-photo meme connoisseur, check out the gaudy t-shirt collection Adobe put out last year to “commemorate” the awfulness of stock photography.
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.