My Favorite Sites For Free Stock Photos

As a Creative, it's incredibly useful to have access to a variety of graphics: transparent PNGs, photographs, illustrations, SVGs, and more. In my time as a designer I've come across many websites that offer copyright-free, fair use graphics. These are some of my favorites:

Note: This article is not sponsored.

1. Nappy

Diversity and representation are important, especially in media. As a Creative, it's your job to make sure that we see equal representation of people who have historically been excluded from media. That's why my first two sites provide free stock photos of members of groups that need more representation. Think about what it could do for someone to see themselves in the image you use. It benefits the Creative by connecting them with their audience, and benefits the audience by making them feel seen.

The first site, Nappy, provides "beautiful, high-resolution photos of black and brown people to startups, brands, agencies, and everyone else. Nappy makes it easy for companies to be purposeful about representation in their designs, presentations, and advertisements. (Nappy)" They're a great place to go if you're looking for stock photos. Nappy's photos are available for free under a Creative Commons Zero license. No account required.

2. Gender Spectrum

The second site is Gender Spectrum, a Broadly collection presented by Vice. "This collection aims to help media better represent members of these communities as people not necessarily defined by their gender identities (Gender Spectrum Collection)." It provides stock photos of gender-diverse people doing everyday things. These images are available for free under a Creative Commons license. No account required.

3. Rawpixel

I love RawPixel because they have way more than just stock photos. They have graphic elements, PNGs, PSDs, vectors, illustrations, icons, and more. There's also a wide collection of public domain images. They do require an account to access graphics, but I've never gotten any spam emails from them. Make sure you select "free" when searching for images on RawPixel, because they do have a selection of graphics that are only available with a premium membership.

4. Pixabay

Pixabay has photos, illustrations, and vectors, plus videos, music, and sound effects! While many of their elements are more "juvenile" (think clip at) I've had luck finding some great graphics on this site. It's free to use with no account required, but I would recommend creating an account just so you can save graphics you like for later. "Pixabay contents are free to use for commercial and non-commercial purposes. (Pixabay)"

5. pexels

Pexels is one of the larger free-media sites out there, so you'll have plenty to choose from. They have a great curation of front-page photos that are just lovely, organized by color. No account is required, but if you do create one you can save photos you like for later and make "collections" for different projects or themes. All photos on Pexels are free to use and modify with no attribution required.

6. unsplash

Ah yes, Unsplash. "The internet's source of freely-usable images (Unsplash)." Another of the largest free-media sites, Unsplash has a massive collection of free images. No account is required, but you can use one to save photos and make "collections." Their editorial page features some of the top picks of the day, and they have many other curated collections that make images easy to find. All photos are free for commercial and non-commercial purposes, with no permission needed.

7. And many More!

Some other sites I use occasionally are Free SVG, Graphics Fairy, KaboomPics, Life of Pix, Oh So Lovely, PikWizard, StockSnap, and WikiView. If there are any you know of that I didn't include, please leave a comment so other people can discover even more resources!