I have been in the fashion industry for almost 20 years so have been privy to what happens behind the scenes and have seen how the production of images has changed over the years — especially when photography moved from film to digital. Where originally expensive retouching was used by a select fashion few to remove stubborn last minute pimples in beauty ads, in a few short years, it has been replaced by computer artists shaving pounds off bodies and eliminating years of living from faces. And now many of us even have many high tech photo manipulation features on our phones and computers!
There is a need to retouch a fashion image for many reasons, say if a button falls off mid-shoot, if make-up powder falls on a model’s face, if a garment has a rip or discolouration, to remove scuff marks on a set floor etc. But why do some companies need to manipulate an image so much that we don’t even recognize the original image? When curves are downplayed and laugh lines are erased? Dove has decided to take aim at this with its recent project Photoshop Action following in the footsteps of its popular film Evolution from years ago.
Dove targeted directors, graphic designers, and photo retouchers, the people behind the fashion scenes responsible for manipulating the images we see. The action offered was a free downloadable “beautify” application to add a glow effect to photos they were manipulating. But much to the surprise of the retoucher, once applied, all changes made were reversed and the statement, “Don’t manipulate our perceptions of “Real Beauty,” was left.
As a model who has delighted in seeing my photos used properly and cringed at witnessing my image being overly manipulated, badly retouched and sometimes barely recognizable, I applaud this initiative to draw attention to something that is spiraling out of reality. When many grade schools are now offering airbrushed options for school picture day, something needs to be done.
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