Getty Images partnered with fiftyfifty (street magazine sold by homeless people), and worked with their homeless vendors as models for classic stock photography.

We filtered out the most in-demand motifs on Getty Images, and portrayed the homeless as common people in these different life and work situations. This way, we showed homeless people’s possibilities, and helped people to see the homeless as who they really are –– the same human beings as anyone of us.

The photos were uploaded to Getty Images and iStock. We encourage the users to download our images instead of the other normal ones. All profits from the downloads go directly to fiftyfifty to help house the homeless.

More photographers worldwide are encouraged to join us, create their own stock photo collection for Getty Images with their local homeless, and donate the photo profits to local homeless NGOs, which turned the project into a global movement.

We first integrated the photos into the Getty Images database, and tagged them separately, targeting the users with different image needs. These images are purchasable for people worldwide on gettyimages.com and istockphoto.com.

Meanwhile, a microsite was launched, as a categorized portal of all images, and a project hub that leads people to explore the initiative.

While Getty Images began to promote our photo collection in their newsletter to the user community every month, we are promoting our message together with the powerful photos through various mediums: online films, social media posts across all platforms, a print campaign on fiftyfifty, a TVC on n-tv, films in cinemas across Düsseldorf, plus an exhibition in the biggest church of Düsseldorf at the town center.

The project started out as an initiative in Germany, but with more and more photographers and homeless NGOs worldwide joining us, it has already turned into a global movement.

With 155 million reach, and € 1.4 million equivalent of earned media, we are driving a narrative of hope and possibilities for the homeless community. The shift of public perceptions, and the change in the way people talk about the homeless, have been evidently reflected in the media coverage and people’s online discussion about our photos.

Up until now, the project has generated over € 50K donations in total for fiftyfifty. The number still keeps climbing, with stock photography as a constant fundraising tool over the long term.

The campaign speaks to all people holding biased perceptions of the homeless, with powerful stock images as our direct communication channel. It calls on people to re-scrutinize their prejudices, and start seeing the homeless as who they really are –– the same humans as anyone of us.

The photo collection mainly lives on Getty Images’ online stock photo archives. It directly targets stock photo users in their most common image searches, and encourages them to download our photos that “repicture the homeless” instead of the other normal images in the archive, in order to help raise funds for homeless people.

As one important perception-shaping force, stock photos are abundant with typical scenes of common people, which we took advantage of and turned into our direct communication tool, to break the sad visual stereotypes of the homeless.

Based on the data insights about the most in-demand scenarios on Getty Images, we created a relevant photo collection targeting stock photo users in their most common image searches.

We ask the users to download our photos, instead of the other normal images, to help raise funds for the homeless. Our data-based targeting strategy makes it easier to get the users to answer such call-to-actions, since our images in their search results match their needs.

As being spread out across media, the powerful photos speak to all those holding biased perceptions of homeless people, calling on them to take a new look at the homeless, and start seeing them as who they really are.

People always see homeless people as poor, desperate, and beyond help. Most existing homeless campaigns simply keep re-affirming such stereotypical images, and ask people to donate out of sympathy, which only marginalized this community even more.

Instead of following down the spiral of pity, this campaign is aimed to challenge people’s prejudiced beliefs, and drive a different narrative for the homeless, by putting homeless people’s hope and possibilities under the spotlight.

At the same time, the project also has the purpose of raising funds for the homeless community in a meaningful way.