As this year’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities arrives, we are excited to announce our latest group of Create Fund grant recipients. Shutterstock’s Create Fund provides historically excluded artists with financial and professional support to help close access gaps, fill content gaps, and further diversity and inclusion within our content library and our contributor network.
Shutterstock is committed to ensuring our content is representative of a globally diverse world—offering a range of perspectives in both our visuals and the artists who create them. This latest group of artists have won funding in the “Disability All In” category, which seeks to provide grants to diversify authentic portrayals of disabilities in Shutterstock’s content library.
These grants, along with a helpful eBook, have been created in partnership with the Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment (GADIM) and the World Institute on Disability (WID). Together, we are proud to push contributors to create more genuine portrayals of people with disabilities.
Here, we speak with all six of the new Create Fund winners to learn what this opportunity means to them. We also explore ways that their work is advancing how people with disabilities are portrayed in photography, illustration, and videography.
Elizabeth Rajchart: Prioritizing Individuality in Photos
Rajchart prioritizes individuality in her portrait photography. By giving models space to be themselves, Rajchart strives to represent people with disabilities on their own terms.
Shutterstock: What does winning this grant mean to you?
Rajchart: Winning this grant makes me feel so optimistic about the future of disability representation. So many times, my community is photographed, written about, or filmed by a person without disabilities. To know Shutterstock is committed to diversity on both sides of the lens is incredibly encouraging.
It’s also so exciting to have the funding to continue to represent the disability community through my photography. I love what I do, and to be recognized for it just makes me so proud of both my art and the subjects in it.
SSTK: How would you describe your aesthetic style?
Rajchart: My style is very subject-led. My goal in every photo is to show my model the way they want to be shown, and to show their own strength as they see it, not as society chooses to see them. So many times, we’re put in a box by society, shown by the light they choose. I want my models to be able to truly see themselves authentically in my art.
SSTK: How do you want to challenge the stock content industry?
Rajchart: I want to challenge the stock content industry by continuing to insist on authentic representation.
Dean Strauss: Illustrating Comprehensive, Inclusive Portraits
Strauss is an illustrator and designer who specializes in true-to-life portraits. His work focuses on queer and disability representation.
Shutterstock: What does winning this grant mean to you?
Strauss: Winning this grant is a chance to show the impact of disability representation. This grant will show the disability community I know that doesn’t get much time in the spotlight.
SSTK: How would you describe your aesthetic style?
Strauss: My style is colorful and joyful. I am very much inspired by the cartoons and kid’s books I grew up with.
SSTK: How do you want to challenge the stock content industry?
Strauss: I would challenge the stock content industry to prioritize not only disability representation, but meaningful disability representation.
There has been some progress in acknowledging inspiration porn and the damage it does, but I’d like to see us continue even past that. I want to see disabled folks represented in all categories, with a full range of experiences and emotions represented.
Neha Balachandran: Editorial Photography That Represents Everyone
Balachandran is a photographer who specializes in stunning and bold editorial portraits. The goal of her photography is to highlight and deliver more deaf BIPOC representation to the media.
Shutterstock: What does winning this grant mean to you?
Balachandran: It truly means a lot. I feel that this is a huge stepping stone towards my goal of bringing accurate representation of the BIPOC deaf+ community in media. It is a huge honor to receive this opportunity.
SSTK: How would you describe your aesthetic style?
Balachandran: I strive for an editorial portrait aesthetic. I want to bring diversity into my photos, but in the sense that seeing these beautiful people of all backgrounds and shapes is normalized.
SSTK: How do you want to challenge the stock content industry?
Balachandran: I want to challenge the stock content industry to make space for BIPOC content. Often, we see white people demonstrating everyday things. I want people with disabilities to be shown in a way that it is normal to see that group doing everyday things.
Oaklee Thiele: An Artist and Activist
Thiele’s work illustrates life from a disabled person’s perspective. Her activism addresses systematic discrimination within academia, artistic institutions, and everyday life.
Shutterstock: What does winning this grant mean to you?
Thiele: Winning this grant from Shutterstock gives me a large platform to share my work and allows me to pay the disabled models that inspire my illustrations.
SSTK: How would you describe your aesthetic style?
Thiele: I am a disability rights activist and protest artist who documents the intersectional nature of the disability community, while also celebrating disabled pride and culture.
SSTK: How do you want to challenge the stock content industry?
Thiele: I want the stock content industry to consist of images containing people who look like me, made by people who look like me.
Ann Marie J. Bryan: Filmmaker at the Forefront of Deaf POC Representation
Bryan is an accomplished filmmaker who prioritizes social issues, equality, and accessibility in her work. She uses her platform to address the erasure of POC/Black deaf voices in film and television.
Shutterstock: What does winning this grant mean to you?
Bryan: As an artist with a disability, winning this grant means creative freedom and a platform to tell my story through the visual art medium.
SSTK: How would you describe your aesthetic style?
Bryan: I am a filmmaker, activist, game changer, and community builder. I am not afraid to be vocal or challenge myself to push the boundaries.
When it comes to creating my art or telling my stories, I tend to take pictures or videotape interesting people or things around the city. I use Post-it notes to write a one-liner logline for each still or clip. This helps me to develop visual story concepts for my screenplays, business ideas, or projects.
SSTK: How do you want to challenge the stock content industry?
Bryan: By making media accessible through as many inclusion efforts as possible. My social consciousness recognizes what others need for accessibility, in order to feel included in society.
I also recognize the constant problems in the entertainment, media, and technology industries that don’t often do enough to include authentic representation of BIPOC disabled people or creators.
Omid Omidvar: Collaborating with Other Disabled Individuals
Omidvar is a photographer and filmmaker who finds cinematic beauty in the world around him. He is excited to use his award to collaborate further with disabled individuals in his own community.
Shutterstock: What does winning this grant mean to you?
Omidvar: This grant provides me the opportunity to share my artistic vision with others. Also, it gives me the ability to create authentic work to represent the disabled community and collaborate more closely with disabled people.
SSTK: How would you describe your aesthetic style?
Omidvar: I take advantage of natural light, which makes photos look very realistic. I re-capture pictures and go through multiple iterations until I find a story in that picture.
SSTK: How do you want to challenge the stock content industry?
Omidvar: I capture the world with a normal photographic lens, because I believe that the world is best seen with a human eye. I would rather take static shots, instead of moving ones. This helps me to have a better understanding of my surroundings and create better mise-en-scène.
Preferably, I would use a normal lens (50mm) for an entire project.
Learn More About The Create Fund
Since 2020, Shutterstock’s Create Fund has been awarding emerging artists in order to support their meaningful contributions to the creative community. If you’re interested in learning more about the fund—or if you’re interested in applying for a grant—please visit our landing page to learn more.
