I must admit that I have a bit of a thing against stock photography, particularly in shopping centres: perfect-looking models with perfect white-toothed smiles, holding iPods, showing off shoes, posing in jeans, eating exotic looking foods, flirting with other exceptionally good-looking people; these images just don’t seem representative of the people who are doing the actual consuming! It feels fake. But love it or loathe it, stock photography plays an important role in everyday image exchange. Stock photography is found pretty much everywhere in the media: on book covers, advertising posters, websites and magazines…

Now just imagine if a photo shoot turned you into one of the most used stock-photo faces in the world. This happened to Jennifer Anderson. She’s no celebrity musician or movie star, but her stock-shot face features in numerous advertisments, on countless book covers and various websites. Anderson has gained a cult internet following and has her own blog and online store at www.theeverywheregirl.com .

What are some of the stock photos or images that seem to be everywhere? Let’s “take stock” of them (groan, bad pun alert!). Comment back with the web addresses, advertisments, or book covers that feature the image, or a variation thereof. You’ll need to have seen the image in two or more places for it to qualify.