Getty Images partnered with fiftyfifty (a 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 the possibilities of homeless people, 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. All profits from the downloads go directly to fiftyfifty to help house the homeless.

More photographers worldwide are encouraged to join us and create their own stock photo collection with their local homeless, which will also be integrated into the Getty Images database and generate revenue for partnered local homeless NGOs. Just like this, the project has turned into a global movement.

We shot the most requested motifs with our homeless models, and integrated the photos into the Getty Images database. These photos 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.

All photo profits contribute to fiftyfifty’s Housing First project to purchase apartments for the homeless. With a house, they will have a better chance for a job and a new life.

So far, 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.

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

All in all, this project contributes to help the homeless off the street and out of extreme poverty, by helping them to get a house, as well as more respect and acceptance into the society.

Instead of another homeless campaign that only invokes pity, our project aimed to challenge the negative public perceptions of the homeless, by putting homeless people’s hope and possibilities under the spotlight.

Stock photos are abundant with typical scenarios of common people, which we took advantage of, to help the public “repicture” the homeless as the same human beings as anyone of us. This way, people are more likely to treat the homeless the way they deserve, and offer help.

Meanwhile, as a well-established online business, stock photography also makes a perfect constant fundraising tool.

With the data insights about the most in-demand scenarios on Getty Images, we created a relevant photo collection that targets the users in their most common image searches, which contributes to more downloads and more donations to help house the homeless. With an apartment, they have a better chance for a job and a new life.

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 shift the negative public perceptions of the homeless, and make a real impact for this community, 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.