In daily life, you're surrounded by perfectly generic images.

If you're messaging with a customer service chatbot on the internet,

you might be greeted by a photo of a smiling woman

who's wearing a headset. If you're flipping through a brochure of investment options at

a bank, you'll see a shot of a diverse group of people in suits in a brightly lit conference room.

And if you pass a bus stop advertisement for a local gym,

you might catch a glimpse of a runner racing off into the sunset.

Our stuff is the secret background of the whole world.

That's Yuri Arkers.

He's the CEO and founder of a company called People Images.

And he's one of the most prolific stock photographers in the world.

Essentially any big city... stock photographers in the world.

Essentially any big city if you walk for 10 minutes you'll probably see five or six of my shots Pretty much all the big brands at some point or another have used our files.

When a company needs an image that embodies a particular vibe in a bland but professional way,

it often buys a stock image, an existing photograph that can be licensed for commercial use.

There are millions of stock photos for sale on websites like Shutterstock and Adobe Stock, depicting

nearly every subject you can dream up. If you need a photo of an elderly

Japanese woman on a tractor or a heavy set man in a blue shirt eating a donut, a stock photographer like Arkurs. a

heavy set man in a blue shirt eating a donut. A stock photographer like Arkers probably has you covered.

The total database we have right now is 600,000 images.

But with commissions shrinking and new kinds of competition on the rise, it's getting harder and

harder to make money in the stock photo game.

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