Fantasy Art & Photography - Diversity?

[nsfwords]

Scouring the internet for fantasy writing inspiration today and despite spending more that 3+ hours looking at phenomenal photography it really struck me that there was nooooo diversity of any kind in this medium. I was looking for someone with a darker skin tone, and hoping for kind of an elemental feel or animal familiar vibe and there was just nada to be found. Pinterest and Google searches were both a complete bust no matter how many varied search terms I came up with.

I even tried a different angle, plus sized fantasy photography, and at least there I found this incredible mermaid photo shoot (link attached below) despite an overall lack of material. No big girls allowed again.

I was naively surprised by this.



Photo credit: Jess Summers. Here is a link to her great article on the making of this mermaid!