The last few times we’ve posted stories calling out magazines or brands for gratuitously using Photoshop, I’ve noticed more and more readers speaking out in defense of the practice. Many of you agree with the Nick Knight statement on airbrushing: “If you want reality, look out the window.”
Clearly Photoshop and the fashion industry aren’t breaking up anytime soon, but I think most of us would agree that there are good and bad ways to use the technique. If you’re airbrushing an image to create an aesthetic effect, that’s one thing, but completely distorting a person’s body so that it better conforms to a boring standard of perfection has nothing to do with creativity. Of course, media producers are always going to use some amount of airbrushing to make images aspirational and to present a fantasy, but shouldn’t there be limits? How much Photoshop is too much Photoshop?
Consider these images of Naomi Campbell, which are from Harper’s Bazaar Vietnam’s June issue. One tFSer called out the one on the right: “They usually Photoshop Naomi a lot in magazines, but I think they went too far with this one.” And indeed, Campbell’s skin glows like plastic and her already-big lips are comically swollen. The supermodel is one of the world’s most beautiful women; does she really need to be made beautiful-er? Do her pixels really need so much smoothing and rearranging?
[Images via FashionGoneRogue]
Related:
- Lady Gaga’s Unretouched Versace Campaign Outtakes Prove It: Fashion Advertising Is Bullsh*t
- See These Famous Masterpieces Get a 21st Century Photoshop Makeover
- Nick Knight on Photoshopping in Magazines: ‘If You Want Reality, Look Out of the Window’
