What is stock photography? Stock photography is a billion-dollar business that "produces, promotes, and distributes ready-made photographic images for use in marketing and advertising" (Frosh, 2003, 247). These photographic images are licensed for specific use. They are produced by professional photographers, distributed by stock agencies, and circulated by clients. Most often, clients consist of advertising creatives and designers who are looking to incorporate high-quality images into their work. Clients come to stock agencies with a particular subject and concept in mind for which they wish to purchase. The photographs exist in an archive that contains a complex classificatory system. Each photograph is key-worded with verbal labels that highlight the subject and concept matter within the frame. This establishes distinct image-categories in which viewers or potential customers are able to search for and access specific visuals they desire. According to Frosh, "the vast majority of them are names of emotions or values rather than of objects, and they connect to broad psychological, social, and ideological domains, while at the same time, as single nouns, enjoying a radical isolation from specific contexts" (2003, 252). Stock agencies want images that are without context so that they obtain polysemy for multiple reuses. This is their goal - to appeal to a range of different applications in diverse promotional material for different products (Frosh, 2003, 252). By doing so, they will obtain the most clients and profit.

Who are Lean In and Getty Images? The Lean In Collection is able to position itself as a library of images that is empowering for women due to the power that both entities involved obtain. Rose states, "a statement coming from a source endowed with authority... is likely to be more productive than one coming from a marginalized social position" (220). In terms of revenue, Getty Images is largest stock agency and the biggest provider of stock photography in the United States (Frosh, 2007, 3). It boasts a 2.4 million customer base and a 150 million image selection taken by professional photographers that is available on its website (Miller). Adding to this, Sheryl Sandberg is the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, founder of LeanIn.Org, and has recently published a book, "Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead", that has gained considerable success and recognition in the mass media. Forbes and TIME have titled her to be one of the most influential. She comes from a white, upper-middle class, highly educated background and is ranked as one of the top ten most powerful women in the United States (Saki 54). She is also one of the richest women in the world. Both forces maintain a highly regarded reputation and have considerable power in their respective fields. In a New York Times article written by Claire Miller, she describes that Lean In Collection's "message has the potential to reach a wide area of society" (Miller). Together, they have the authority to represent contemporary females in a particular way. The Lean In Collection is a powerful discourse because it has produced a particular kind of knowledge that defines females as leaders, empowered, and part of the conversation. It seeks to persuade the viewer that its subjects are empowered and have agency. Women are now fully involved and responsible for the direction of their own lives, according to LeanIn and Sandberg (Sellers). This particular knowledge about the world that Lean In Collection puts forth has the potential to shape "how the world is understood and how things are done in it" by the viewers (Rose 190). History of stock photography Historically, stock images have portrayed negative images of females in mass media that are stereotyped, gendered, and old-fashioned. Women are visualized as sexual objects meant to be looked at, unable to balance work and life, and strained as a result of life's demands. To counter these inauthentic accounts, Lean In Collection claims that their stock images function to rebuild an alternative identity for females that is positive, which gives the organizational press and promotion. The identity that they work to build consists of women who are "diverse" in terms of race, gender, sexuality, and class. Their hope is that these images will serve as inspirational tools for people around the world. Discourse Analysis I