Inclusivity & Diversity in Product & Lifestyle Photography: Catering to The Global Audiences with Multicultural Photography
In today’s 21st century, relatability, resonance, and empathy hold significant value. Global audiences appreciate representation in photography by seeing themselves in your brand, but they prefer it to be understood.
Diverse lifestyle photography is not a new concept; however, its execution matters in terms of making your visuals appear appealing or repelling.
Likewise, inclusive photography, for e-commerce brands scaling quickly, is about tactful and raw authenticity that tells a story.
This article explores how inclusivity and diversity in product and lifestyle visuals can increase your brand’s resonance through multicultural photography.
What Does Genuine Inclusive Photography Look Like?
Representation in photography goes beyond capturing a racial mix of faces. It is about displaying authentic contexts that make the global audiences feel understood.
Hiring diverse models is a great initiative for inclusive photography. But it isn’t enough.
Display how your product exists in different settings. Reflect on cultural nuances to connect with diverse audiences.
Focus on traditions, environments, and aspects that represent the lived experiences of individuals from all backgrounds.
For example:
A renowned made-in-Singapore personal care brand named The Powder Shampoo® resonates with global audiences due to its multicultural photography and values-based representation. Their commitment to inclusive photography is evident in visuals featuring models of varying ethnicities, skin tones, and hair types, highlighting how their sustainable hair care products are used in real-world settings. From sun-drenched tropical bathrooms to minimalistic urban interiors, the brand portrays an authentic diversity of routines and environments that reflect the lived experiences of its broad customer base. One of their campaign images features a model with curly textured hair holding a travel-size shampoo bottle in a naturally lit setting, radiating self-care without looking overly staged — a perfect example of representation in photography done right.
As the UCDA notes, the significance of multicultural photography is to “create strong and accurately representative photos” so as to connect with the audience deeply.
The Authentic-Look Aesthetic Representation in Photography: Refined Yet Human
Audiences easily identify when a photo looks too perfect – far from reality. This is why fast-scaling brands are opting for the natural or real-look aesthetic that blends raw with perfection.
Allow models to interact intuitively with their environment in a raw manner.
Employ natural lighting in rich environments with interactions that are imperfect and unposed.
As Adorama highlights, the popularity of inclusive photography goes beyond borders and engages positive attention from audiences all around. Therefore, representation in photography should feel curated organically rather than choreographed for a stage.
Built brand credibility with ethical standards & attribution
Performative inclusion and staged diversity are a complete no-go when it comes to scaling content production for representation in photography.
Retouching photographs should not alter real skin tones and features.
Engage diverse creative groups to prevent cultural blind spots.
Obtain consent explicitly from each subject.
Avoid balancing representation by photoshopping in diversity.
Brief Implementation Checklist for Inclusive Photography
For ensuring raw, natural representation in photography, here are some actions that you can take at every step:
During the briefing, clearly set inclusion goals and ensure natural cultural settings.
While casting, employ diverse and local talent, varying in age, size, ability, and expression.
In set design, utilize colors, spaces, and textures specific to the region.
During direction, focus on capturing spontaneity, movement, and imperfect moments.
In the post-production stage, avoid homogenous editing and represent each skin tone in its natural state.
During the final review stage, ensure external and internal diversity checks.
Key takeaway
Inclusive and diverse lifestyle photography is not about fulfilling a criterion. It is about reflecting your world audiences on how your brand stands for living life truthfully, wholly, differently yet beautifully.
When your photographs represent the raw, real truth, your brand appears real too.
📸 Bringing Inclusivity to Life with JU Productions
At JU Productions, our Scheduled Lookbook™ service empowers brands to practice true inclusive photography without the constraints of large-scale budgets or minimum orders. Whether you need just 1 SKU or an entire collection, there’s no MOQ, and shoots start from as low as S$100 per SKU. This flexibility allows e-commerce and fashion brands to authentically capture diverse lifestyle photography and multicultural storytelling that truly resonate with global audiences.
👉 Learn more about how you can join an upcoming Scheduled Lookbook™ session here.
