Sheryl Sandberg, the famous Facebook executive whose Lean In initiative has galvanized attention around re-calibrating the image of contemporary women, is now getting literal in her image efforts. Knowing that little in life is as influential as a picture (worth a thousand words, you know), Sandberg is going right at the source — where the images live. Sandberg’s Lean In organization has partnered with Getty Images, one of the world’s largest purveyors of photographic imagery — digital and analog. And not surprising for a digital operative, Sandberg’s solution starts with the data. How about this? The three most-searched terms in Getty’s image database are “women,” “business” and “family,” according to the New York Times.
[Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg]
So Lean In teamed with Getty to create a special Lean In Collection, comprising images that naturally portray women in positions of strength — scalpel in hand or half-pipe below, with hardly a secretary’s headset or cook’s spatula in sight. And the new Lean In enterprise stays true to the guiding ethos of Silicon Valley: for change to take hold, it must be lucrative. So while winning points for good citizenship, Getty also hopes to reap financial rewards from the collection. Skewing hip and contemporary — most women in these images would look right at home in a Dwell magazine shoot — the Lean In Collection features women who are real and ready. And technologically savvy, too — tablets abound in these images.
The Getty Images catalog has over 150 million images and the new Lean In Collection will begin with just 2,500. That’s less than two-tenths of one percent. (But hey, maybe it’s the top two-tenths of one percent — also, coincidentally, Sandberg’s income bracket.) The phrase Lean In means to work hard and give it your all. The Lean In Collection is a good start, but to compile a collection of pictures big enough to tell the dynamic women’s story that Sandberg wants to tell, Getty will have to lean way, way in.
