Dr. Rebecca Swift

Rebecca joined the photography industry over 20 years ago and was one of the founding members of the creative research team at Getty Images, introducing visual research methodology to the industry.

Today, Rebecca leads the Creative Research and Planning team who set the content strategy for Getty Images, through researching and analysing trends in visual communication. This knowledge helps inform Creative Insights – an online destination from Getty Images that gives behind the lens access, authentic thought-provoking imagery and a curated glimpse of today’s visual trends.

Rebecca is also responsible for building image collections for iStock, the web’s original community for crowd-sourced royalty free stock images, media and design elements, and a subsidiary of Getty Images.

Day-to-day Rebecca works with photographer communities that range from amateur hobbyists to renowned professionals, setting creative briefs, training photographers in legal issues and keywording, and arranging photo shoots. Rebecca also runs global research projects investigating the future of visual communications and has published many trend reports.

One area Rebecca is particularly passionate about is the evolving representation of people in visual communications. Rebecca is personally responsible for driving change in visual language depicting sports women and girls, which she has done by rewriting the visual standards of commercial imagery depicting this group and briefing Getty Images’ contributing photographers against these new visual standards. Rebecca also led a partnership with Jaguar Land Rover to produce imagery representing the realities of a modern day STEM career for women. Most recently she has turned her attention to addressing authentic and diverse representations of people with disabilities in the media.

In addition, Rebecca acts as a visual brand consultant for global corporations. She works with companies spanning a wide range of industries, from the charity sector to the oil industry, and has presented her findings all over the world.

Rebecca lectures at conferences and seminars across the globe and guest lectures at universities across Britain. She has sat on the judging panel for most of Europe’s significant photography, design and advertising awards.

Rebecca has PhD in Photography. Her research expertise is in commercial creativity and the evolution of visual trends in advertising.