Photography
Humanity and empathy are the driving force of the BlackRock photographic style. Photographic content can be literal or metaphorical and can be used alone or alongside our illustrations.
We have a highly curated library of images to pull from. These images should always be used with purpose and never solely for aesthetics. They should always support and amplify the idea being communicated.
Principles
The goal is to create a library with a cohesive style. Imagery might not match all the criteria listed here, but it should match as many as possible.
Our photography always uses touches of vibrant color. It is never black and white. Imagery should always be high contrast and contain an element of humanity (either literal or implied). It should be empathetic and should always feel authentic.
Our photography library contains images that can communicate a wide range of themes and topics. Photography should draw from a diverse range of cultures and people.
Categories
We use three categories of imagery in our communications. These are defined as situation, people, and object photography.
Situation photography is the most versatile and most used. This imagery is flexible. It can be used macro or micro by using full crop or cropping tightly. It uses metaphors to imply humanity without being too explicit. It features people, things, or places made by people. We use this imagery to communicate broad themes, locations, and environments.
People photography shows real human stories with energy, diversity, and spirit. This photography style should feel authentic and never staged.
Object photography can be literal or figurative, showing a topic, category, or product being discussed.
Situation
- Imply humanity without being explicit
- Can show people or not, but no face shots
- Things or places made by or for people
- Locations or environments
- Good for broad themes, e.g., climate change
- Can be macro or micro, e.g., flower or forest
- Clean, simple, clear, focused
- Can use metaphors
People
- Shows real human stories
- Energy, diversity, and spirit
- Never staged
- Naturally vibrant
- Clean, simple, clear, focused
Object
- Shows a specific thing being discussed
- Used to demonstrate topics or categories
- To make investment products tangible
- Can be literal or figurative, e.g., showing an iPhone to talk about Apple stock prices or technology in general
- Can use metaphors
- Clean, simple, clear, focused
Topics
Our photography can help communicate a range of complex topics in an engaging way. Some of the images are more specific.
Do not use photography which has no relevance to the topic you are communicating.
The examples shown here represent a small selection of our photography topics. They do not represent the entire BlackRock photography library.