We often get requests to fulfill our clients’ needs for photography that will make different cultural groups feel inclusive, when a client crosses cultural boundaries. Those boundaries could be different groups across the city or different groups across different countries.

There seems to be two different types of images. The first type is cultural landmarks or regional relevancy. The second type is people or lifestyle. In either case the biggest thing to avoid is a stereotypical shot, or a canned shot that looks like a stock photo. I’ll explain further.

In the first case you don’t want to find a photo of a geographic location that is not identifiable, for example, a lush green forest surrounding a waterfall might be what is really there, but it doesn’t convey a specific place, unless it’s a landmark like Yosemite’s Half Dome, or New Zealand’s Fjords. Rather focus on a unique way of seeing what is known. For example an interesting reflection of the Sydney Opera house as opposed to the opera house itself. In another situation, like a lesser-known Eastern European city, a skyline might work better than a church because it includes a recognizable landscape that works for many cultures without singling out any one.