GI-Values-LP-Hero.jpg
GI-Values-LP-Hero.jpg

About Getty Images

Take a deep dive into our values

Explore our values

At Getty Images, our mission is to move the world. We pursue our mission through our images, videos, and illustrations which seek to inform, drive debate, entertain, inspire, and challenge historic biases.

We’re a unique visual content and technology company that is dedicated to serving the full spectrum of the world’s growing creative community, from the largest global enterprises to small businesses, and across the creative economy.
We bring our cumulative creative knowledge and our journalistic excellence to this mission.

We strive for authenticity, through actions and content that represent real people, events, actions, and facts.

We support the creativity economy and intellectual property rights that enable creators to invest in ground‑breaking, unique content.

We protect and advocate for a free press, editorial integrity, and the democratic structures and freedoms that support these principles.

We preserve a visual history to celebrate milestones and historic contributions and to educate future generations on the mistakes of the previous.

We treat our colleagues, our customers, our partners and the communities with whom we interact, with respect. Our Leadership Principles guide our interactions.

We stand against racism, intolerance, and hatred. We reject and condemn any form of racial injustice, mistreatment, and discrimination, and the exclusion of any marginalized communities from society. We aspire to a higher level of inclusiveness and greater understanding of diversity as we actively listen, learn, change, and hold ourselves accountable on our never‑ending journey to improve.

We embrace a growth mindset and show up every day believing our visual content and our actions can move the world towards increased understanding, acceptance, participation, sustainability, and creativity.

Our Leadership Principles

No matter where our employees sit at Getty Images, we all incorporate a common set of values—our Leadership Principles—into our daily work lives. Our goal to be the best place to work globally is something we take to heart. It’s why we’re committed to living these principles day‑in and day‑out.

1. We are trustworthy, transparent, and honest.
2. We always raise the bar.
3. We collectively bring solutions.
4. We care, are kind, courteous and respectful.
5. We are inclusive of different voices, perspectives and experiences.
6. We reject biased behavior and discrimination.
7. We are one Getty Images with no silos.
8. We deliver on our commitments and commercial goals.
9. We put the customer at the heart of everything we do.

Stance on Diversity & Inclusion

Diversity & Inclusion Vision: A Getty Images whose employees, contributors, and imagery reflects the diversity of our customers and markets around the globe. Our culture enables individuals to come to work as themselves, be treated with respect and be given equal opportunities, and will ensure their perspectives and experiences are included in our decision making.

Diversity and inclusion aren’t buzz words—they’re meaningful goals rooted in our Leadership Principles that we’re actively working towards, from our employee experiences to our content development. They’re also not a destination, but a journey to which we’re committed, as we understand the importance of improving authentic visual representation and caring for our employees across the globe.

BLM Statement

BLACK LIVES MATTER—At Getty Images, for too long, Black individuals have not mattered enough and that changes now—we can no longer wait.

Why did we wait to issue an external statement? We lack the diversity and inclusiveness that we truly aspire to, especially in leadership, and so we took some time to listen and better understand the experiences of our Black colleagues inside and outside Getty Images. We’re grateful for and humbled by their generosity and courage in sharing with us their lived experiences. We have heard them; their words have fundamentally informed our new perspective, this statement, and the actions we’re outlining.

Getty Images stands against racism. Freedom of the press is fundamental to eradication of racism from all aspects of society. Getty Images stands against restrictions, intimidation, and persecution to limit free speech, the right to protest and the right of the media to cover events safely, freely, and impartially.

We fully recognize that words are only as good as the actual change that happens in our organization and our industry to emphasize that Black Lives Matter every single day.


Culture & Representation

We must ground our culture in anti‑racism and eliminate white supremacy. That means fostering an environment of fearless feedback that encourages employees to call out anti‑Black behaviors and actions in the moment. We commit to firm accountability and zero tolerance for racism in our work together.

We must build a diverse community and create an environment in which all can thrive. How we hire, develop, and compensate at all levels and in all departments, including our global network of content creators, must be corrected for systemic bias. We commit to changing representation at all levels of leadership.


Content

We fully believe in the power of imagery to change the world. To do this we must support Black content creators. We must tell more of the authentic stories of the global Black community and we recognize anew that we cannot do this without Black content creators behind the lens. Together with others who are creating, distributing, and selecting visual content we have an urgent opportunity to further drive positive change. With that change, our technology must present visual content that reflects the world and we commit to continued improvements in editing and search to remove bias.

We recognize where we’ve fallen short in the past and we commit to do better. We’re accountable to each other within Getty Images, as well as our customers, content creators, and partners. We understand that imagery has the power to move the world and we accept the responsibility that comes with that power.

Anti‑Racism Statement

OUR STANDS AGAINST RACISM & INJUSTICE—At Getty Images, we stand against racism, intolerance, and hatred. We reject and condemn any form of racial injustice, mistreatment, discrimination, or the exclusion of any marginalized communities from society.

We believe in a Getty Images whose employees, contributors, and imagery reflects the diversity of our customers and markets around the globe. We aim to foster a culture that supports individuals to come to work as themselves, be treated with respect and be given equal opportunities, and will ensure their perspectives and experiences are included in our decision making.

We are committed to supporting our employees, where all experiences and backgrounds are respected and where everyone comes together to produce amazing imagery, support our customers, and impact the world. We are committed to eradicating and dismantling inequities and barriers that prevent individuals from being seen, heard, valued, and respected for their full authentic selves.

We are committed to a work environment that is a safe and inclusive space for all individuals. We are committed to increasing our diversity of our staff, our leadership, and our content creators. We are committed to open dialogue and provide resources and training in support of our collective learning journey. We are committed to providing authentic and positive depiction across all marginalized communities.

Freedom of the press is fundamental to eradication of racism from all aspects of society. We stand against restrictions, intimidation, and persecution to limit free speech, the right to protest, and the right of the media to cover events safely, freely and impartially.
We understand it will take a lot of work and dedicated effort over time, but we are fully invested and unwaveringly committed.

We stand against hate in all forms and against all communities.

Cultural Sensitivity in our Archives

Getty Images takes its responsibility as a world leader in visual content seriously, and our digital libraries are both a cultural and commercial resource supported by an ongoing program of analogue conservation and preservation, as well as digital metadata enrichment.

As the world’s largest privately held visual archive, we own and represent material from thousands of unique sources, and from different cultures and time periods, that are accessible as part of the historic record.

Records held in archives may contain imagery and language that are considered inappropriate today, but are reflective of their time, and we attempt to balance preservation of this history with sensitivity to its presentation. The original descriptions, many of which were written decades ago, can provide important context, but can also demonstrate biases and prejudices.

Today, we strive to write accurate and respectful captions, and we work with our partners and contributors to assess and update inappropriate or harmful content. We also work to correct factual inaccuracies in a timely manner as well as to continuously add more imagery of subjects traditionally underrepresented in the visual narrative of history.

Read more ›

Press Freedom

As committed supporters of The Committee to Protect Journalists, we believe that a free press is essential to our global society, ensuring that we can accurately document and capture world events and inform at the same time. For that reason, press freedom is something we actively work to support both in terms of our staff photographers and our contributor family, as well as the broader creative community through the aid of grants and resources. Learn more about our editorial grants here.

Generative AI

Getty Images has always been a trusted partner for commercially safe, impactful visual content that elevates creativity and helps our customers move the world. Through cost‑efficient and worry‑free products, along with best‑in‑class service, our mission is to help you reach your target audience and move them to action. Our adoption and distribution of AI technologies trained on permissioned creative content furthers that mission and expands our capabilities to deliver exactly what you're looking for ‑ the perfect image.

Whether you are looking for AI‑generated content for creative inspiration, or imagery to use commercially, our Generative AI services include indemnification and perpetual, worldwide usage rights to use in a rapidly changing legal and regulatory environment.

Copyright & Creativity

At Getty Images, we believe that innovation and creativity thrive in an environment where artists, photographers, videographers, and creatives everywhere can be fairly compensated for their work, especially when it’s used for commercial purposes—that’s why we proudly support copyright. We also believe in the importance of creating access to premium content, which is why we make millions of visuals available at no cost for non‑commercial use, via our Embed feature. For us, it’s all about appropriate licensing.

As a global provider of digital media, protecting our photographers’ and contributing artists’ work remains a priority. Today, as members of the Digital Media Licensing Association, we actively advocate for appropriate copyright use.

Interested in learning more about our Getty Images’ Rights & Clearances? Check out Image Usage Rights 101. Want to learn more about our Embed feature? Head here. New to copyright and looking to educate yourself on the basic “ins and outs”? Head to U.S. Copyright Office, WIPO, or the UK Intellectual Property Office. Curious about how copyright impacts industry and concerned about protecting creators’ rights? We recommend you visit DMLA, the Copyright Alliance and CEPIC.