Airbrushing Backlash: Have They Gone Too Far?
The recent examples of Photoshop use gone awry have made me wonder when we consumers will cry out for our models to look like humans.
Demi Moore’s W cover and Ralph Lauren’s ad took two lovely women and made them look like freaks.
Another example of over-zealous photo editing comes from the wayback machine: In the height of the O.J. Simpson trial, two weekly news magazines ran the same photo of Simpson, but one of the magazines edited the photo to make Simpson’s skin look darker and his visage more menacing.
As a Photoshop user myself, I know how powerful the tool is and how seductive photo editing can be. As a journalist who received quite a bit of ethics training, I don’t even like slight edits that soften cellulite or even out skin tone. I never trust a photo in a women’s magazine, as models are thinned out in fashion mags and filled out in health mags.
What do you think? Do you even bother looking at photos any more, knowing how easily they can be manipulated? Does photo manipulation bother you? Do you think Photoshop should be used with the same limitations as the older, analog forms of photo editing? Or, do you think anything goes in art?
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Uncategorized | Jennifer Roland | 
November 16, 2009 6:00 am
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By Jeff, November 18, 2009 @ 4:01 pm
I hate altered photos in any journalistic setting, unless it is of course hiding man boobs in a polo shirt. Seriously though, I was interviewing some guys from a hollywood special effects house a decade ago and an aging (but no means old) actress was there, trying to get a quote for their services. She wanted them to alter her face thoughout a full feature film. Evidently the film producers had scoffed at her and she was willing to bankroll the removal of laugh lines and other wrinkles. The special effects guys told her that they could do it, but the cost was absurd. She left very unhappy.
It has to be much easier and less expensive to do such a thing now, and probably will become trivial in the near future. As damaging as static model shots can be, imagine if virtually every woman on screen (and television too) was absolutely “flawless”. Of course, they’d never be allowed to appear on live programs or meet the public. Heck, it probably won’t be long before perfect women are just drawn in and we aren’t neccessarily aware that “she” doesn’t really exist.
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