The Middle Frame provides authentic stock images to represent the Arab region

The Middle Frame is a Palestinian-founded media-tech start-up offering advertising agencies, news outlets and AI companies on-demand photo coverage and access to a library of authentic Arab images from across the MENA region on everything from news to entertainment and sports events.

Back in November 2023 they raised over $100K from Flat6Labs Amman as part of Cycle 5 of Amman Seed Program!

• Founded in 2022 by Mohammad Alnobani and Raya Fatayer, the start-up currently works with news agencies throughout the MENA region, and also recently signed with Picture Alliance, a media agency based in Germany.

📸 Lack of authentic imagery

The Middle Frame is tackling the notable shortage of culturally and regionally appropriate Arabic images for commercial and editorial use.

This is a problem that has become particularly apparent with the recent surge in AI and image generation technologies, as international image generators consistently fail to accurately represent Arab images, owing primarily to insufficient training data.

To address this issue, The Middle Frame is actively sourcing content from photojournalists throughout the Arab region.

⚙️ Break it down

All contributors are welcome on the platform (you do not need to be Arab or from the MENA region).

The bottom line? Images strictly need to show either locations from around the Arab world and MENA, or include Arab models.

Photographers interested in contributing can easily register on the homepage, complete their profile and payment details, and adhere to the upload guidelines. They receive a 40% commission on each image sold, with monthly earnings displayed on their dashboard and payments processed within 30 days.

Currently, the start-up collaborates with photojournalists from Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.

🤖 What about AI?

Whilst The Middle Frame has partnered with an AI company in the US to provide them with images, and produce data sets, founder Mohamed Alnobani has acknowledged that the platform still needs to collect more data from the region to create a more accurate representation of the Arab world.

The focus for the moment is editorial, but watch this space 👀

🔮 Flashforward

The Middle Frame is aiming to reach 3,500 photographers from 12 different countries in the MENA region, and is preparing to launch a new product by Q1 2024 to facilitate image requests between news agencies and photographers.