ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I focus on stock photography as an unremarkable and mundane visual genre that permeates everyday life in cities, and which therefore also contributes to shaping experiences in and of urban public space. The chapter conceptualizes stock photography as an ambient medium. It shows how stock photography is used to promote businesses and services through smiling individuals and other familiar and flexible subjects that often enliven otherwise vacant or drab storefronts and ultimately also confer warmth to otherwise bland if not alienating urban “landscapes of capital”. The chapter concludes by reflecting on some of the problems and potentials of this often overlooked type of ambient imagery in the creation and regulation of urban mood.
