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NEW YORK, Sept. 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Shutterstock, Inc. (NYSE: SSTK), a leading global provider of digital imagery, announced today 26 finalists for Shutterstock Stories, a creative grant program that will award a total of $75,000 to artists around the world.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130919/NY82733LOGO )

"This program has given our contributors the chance to share the stories behind their work with the world," said VP Content Scott Braut. "The scope of creativity and quality of the submissions we received is truly inspiring."

Over the coming weeks, one $25,000 grand prize and five $5,000 winners will be selected by a panel of creative experts. The general public may also vote for a People's Choice winner on Shutterstock's new blog now through Monday, September 30 at 12pm EST.  The diverse group of finalists includes:

• Africa – Osei Owusu Banahene, Filmmaker
• Asia – Varvara Gorbash, Illustrator; Vladimir Kurilov, Filmmaker; Vladimir Serov, Photographer/Illustrator
• Europe – Maaike Boot, Illustrator; Franck Camhi, Photographer; Claudio Giovenzana, Filmmaker; Kateryna Iatsushek, Illustrator; Eric Isselee, Photographer/Filmmaker; Ben Jacobson, Filmmaker; Urszula Lysionek, Photographer; Maria Ponomareva, Photographer/Illustrator; Paul Prescott, Photographer/Illustrator; Rene Sedney, Photographer; Daniel Talson, Filmmaker
• North America – Ryan Bolton, Photographer/Filmmaker; Elliot Burlingham, Filmmaker; Fernando Gregory, Photographer; Liudmila Horvath, Illustrator; Peter Kovacs, Photographer; Jim Lambert, Photographer; Aff Marshall, Photographer/Filmmaker; Michael Pettigrew, Photographer; Susan Schmitz, Photographer; Jaren Wickllund, Photographer
• South America – Beto Chagas, Photographer

As previously announced, the panel of judges includes Brazilian street artist Eduardo Kobra, Academy Award®-Winning film producer Geralyn White Dreyfous, top Shutterstock contributor Anja Kaiser and Shutterstock Founder/CEO Jon Oringer. All grant recipients will be announced on Tuesday, October 8.

About Shutterstock

Shutterstock is a leading global provider of high-quality licensed photographs, vectors, illustrations and videos to businesses, marketing agencies and media organizations around the world.

Shutterstock works closely with its growing contributor community of photographers, videographers, illustrators and designers to curate a global marketplace for royalty-free imagery. Shutterstock adds tens of thousands of rights-cleared images each week, and with more than 28 million images currently available, the company recently surpassed 300-million all time paid downloads.

Headquartered in New York City, Shutterstock also owns Bigstock, a value-oriented stock media agency; Offset, a high-end image collection; and Skillfeed, an online marketplace for learning.

For more information, please visit http://www.shutterstock.com/, and follow Shutterstock on Twitter or on Facebook.

SOURCE Shutterstock Inc.

Meagan Kirkpatrick, +1-646-402-2854, mkirkpatrick@shutterstock.com, or press@shutterstock.com