Stock photo image bank of professional African women created

Financial management consulting firm, Ellipsis and African-themed stock photography marketplace, Picha, have launched a campaign to create a collection of stock images of African women in honour of International Women’s Day.

Searching for images of professional African women is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. This is because they are underrepresented on the internet. Sadly, this often means that the same images are often used, sometimes "stolen", for social and commercial purposes.

Ellipsis and Picha are on a mission to rectify this problem through a campaign dubbed Melanin Modern, that will offer a variety of royalty-free images representing professional African women in positions of power completely free of charge.

The collection will be freely available to all members of Picha from March 8, International Women’s Day, for use on social networks to change the visual narrative about the working African woman once and for all #Balanceforbetter.

The #MelaninCollection will depict professional African women in action and in modern professional office settings in Africa, guided by the theme, “The African professional woman exists. It's me, it's you.”

Explaining the motivation for the initiative, Ellipsis CEO, Vanessa Adande, said: “Ellipsis is committed to building a balanced future in terms of opportunities for women and men on our continent. We want to break stereotypes by showing African black women in a position of power, in a modern professional setting.”

Picha is redefining the African Stock Imagery by showcasing a more positive, contemporary image of Africa. Visit Picha’s website at www.pichastock.com to view their current collection of African-themed photos.