How Jopwell is Increasing Latinx Representation with a New Photo Collection

In our latest effort to expand our photo library here at Pexels, we’ve teamed up with the career advancement platform Jopwell to share a beautiful new workplace photoshoot featuring Latinx folks.

Jopwell works to help Black, Latinx, and Native American people in the US advance their careers—part of this mission includes doing work to improve the representation of these marginalized groups. As Jopwell explains on their blog, Latinx people are the second largest ethnic or racial group in the United States, and yet they account for only about 8 percent of media representation. We’re working to help Jopwell change this statistic by highlighting Latinx-created photos that show Latinx people at work.

You can discover and download the Jopwell Latinx Collection on Pexels here. Like all photos on Pexels, these images are free to use for their own creative projects.

We spoke to Alex Collins of the Jopwell marketing team to get the background story on the Latinx Collection, and why photography is an important part of Jopwell’s mission.

What is Jopwell’s mission? How does the platform work?

Jopwell is a career advancement platform for Black, Latinx, and Native American students and professionals. Our mission is to make a substantial, measurable impact on increasing historically underrepresented ethnic minority representation in the workforce. We strive to build inclusive workplaces where our users can bring their authentic selves to work and facilitate national dialogues about D&I in the workplace.

Jopwell members can leverage our resources and network of partner companies to find and apply for a range of career opportunities on the platform. For both job-seekers and members of the Jopwell community who are not actively job searching, we also provide dedicated resources, personalized career opportunities, community events, and content through its digital magazine, The Well.

What was the creative concept behind this photo shoot?

We embarked on a highly curated process to bring this photoshoot to fruition. We hired Yarminiah Rosa, an Afrolatinx photographer and creative director, and intentionally cast models of all shades and backgrounds who have committed time and effort to advancing the Latinx community as a whole. We utilized a space, background, and color scheme that cued the rich and vibrant cultural roots of the Latinx experience—but that still depicted the modern, fast-paced, and collaborative work environments of today.

Why is important to you to do photo shoots like this? And why did you decide to share these images on Pexels?

We’re often searching for imagery featuring Black, Latinx, and Native Americans in modern and authentic professional settings, and there is very little compelling representation out there. There are only a handful of truly impactful images showcasing diverse faces in career settings. The search becomes more dire when you narrow it down to a specific demographic. We saw a particularly pronounced gap with imagery depicting Latinx millennials—so we decided to create the photos we wished we’d had when planning our marketing campaigns.

Pexels has been a wonderful partner for our stock photo collections in the past, as one of the world’s largest sources for free stock content. We couldn’t have thought of a better partner so that millions could access our in-demand, authentic, quality content.

Is there anything else you’d like people to know about Jopwell?

We encourage everyone to check out our broader The Jopwell Collection which features hundreds of free-to-download stock photos of Black, Latinx, and Native American students and professionals in a wide array of professional settings.

Find more authentic imagery from Jopwell at their Pexels profile @jopwell.

If you're interested in partnering with Pexels on a project like this, get in touch at [email protected].

Photo Shoot Credits:

Photographer and Creative Director: Yarminiah Rosa
Assistant Director: Daniel Schaefer
Models: Flow Tejada, Irene Lucio, Bianca Kathryn, Jennifer Clayton, Sylvia Ortega, Carolina Castro, David Silva, Martin Navarrete, Ilbert Sanchez, Danice Crump
Make Up: Tee Chavez
Venue: Crew Cuts HQ