Websites to waste time: Awkwardstockphotos

There is no situation that the good people who run stock photo sites haven’t thought of. One site has collected some of their more bizarre work for your time-wasting pleasure.

By Sean Nolan

Have you ever dreamt about being a model? Maybe your life’s wish is to pose for pictures in St Stephen’s Green with a giant bottle of soft drink while wearing a bikini.

But what if if you don’t reach those lofty heights? Well then the terrifying world of stock photo modelling could await you.

The world needs stock photos. Like toilet roll and multi-surface cleaner in your weekly shop, they are the necessary but decidedly unglamorous end of the media photo world.

Everyday newspapers and magazines are full of them and they do a fine job, bringing life to pages that in most cases desperately need them. But the quest to find the right picture to convey every conceivable situation has driven some photo agencies to extremes that not just border on madness, but cross the border, marry a donkey and set up a shop selling accessories for fairies.

Luckily, rather than trawling through these sites for yourself, awkwardstockphotos.com is there for your viewing, and time-wasting, pleasure.

The site takes submissions for the hard-pressed photo-editors who spend their day looking at the cavalcade of weirdness and they submit their favourite ones, which are then published on awkwardstockphotos.com.

Updated daily, two things spring to mind looking at the site. Firstly, what possible story could occur that would require a naked Mexican wrestler sharing a couch with a man reading a book?

Why?

And two, the photographer obviously thought of one, so what the hell was he thinking about?

Hours can be spent being simultaneously horrified, shocked, appalled and thrilled at the madness that is out there.

Why is that giant banana cannibalising lots of other bananas?

Are guitar playing Russian boxers ever going to be big news?

But the site does specialise on stuff that is plain terrifying. What is this freckled lady doing and why would anyone ever need to see this?

And once they start photoshopping giant hands onto swimmers it is time to leave.

Almost all the pictures are SFW but do be careful as any of these images appearing on your desktop as your boss walks by will at least mean some funny looks at the Christmas party.

And the next time you see a poor model freezing on Grafton Street as she tries to promote the latest range of biscuits dressed as a giant Hobnob, don’t feel sorry for them. They can count themselves lucky they aren’t appearing on awkwardstockphotos.com.

At least not yet anyway.