Afrocentric stock photography company, Picha Stock, releases a new collection for Women’s History Month

Picha Stock is an Afrocentric stock photography company based in Seattle, Washington. To coincide with Women’s History Month, the company has launched a new collection that celebrates the beauty, resilience and creativity of modern Black women. Titled the Afrofemme collection, the archive of images is host to an array of stock images featuring a wealth of different women in varying situations.

In a statement, Picha Stock says of its new collection: “The Afrofemme collection aims to uplift and inspire while shifting perceptions and helping to change the visual narrative of the Afrofemme. Fully licensable, the images aim to encapsulate feelings of beauty, resilience, creativity and more – traits that Picha Stock’s founder, Josiane Faubert, established the platform to showcase.

Picha Stock was founded on the realisation that “the perceptions of Africans in the world are not always the reality of Africans or Black communities internationally,” and the Afrofemme collection is an extension of this mantra. Dedicated to representing women from all walks of life, the collection aims to empower marketing, advertising and communications professionals to include more images of the Black experience and more images of people of African descent within their work.

With this in mind, the new collection exists to supply brands and agencies with more diverse content. Picha’s founder, Josiane, is passionate about the subject, stating her mission is “to amplify the voices of creatives and allow for greater content to fill the representation gap.” She adds: “As we celebrate International Women’s Day, it was important for me to launch a collection dedicated to amplifying the beauty, diversity and intelligence of the modern Black woman.” The collection has also been created by international photographers who have “made it their mission to highlight their communities” and celebrate them respectively, to the world.

There are many highlights within the collection, but one that Josiane notes is of a young African girl in France. Other images feature Black women occupying a variety of roles from doctors to firefighters, sportswomen, makeup artists and more. Featuring women of all shapes and sizes, the Afrofemme collection highlights images Josiane had wished she’d seen as a young African girl in France. She adds, “Our minds are wired visually, so it was very important to eliminate the stereotypes typically associated with Black women, because we deserve to be highlighted in a non-binary way, in our true diversity.”

Available in various sizes – including a free social media XS size – there are also standard and large sizes available under royalty-free licenses. Find out more about details and licensing here.