It is hard to imagine life without Photoshop. The digital photograph alteration software has become so pervasive in society it is a staple akin to Starbucks and Apple; yet Photoshop is capable of much more than just producing a caramel macchiato or the latest high-tech gadget. Photoshop is used by the advertising and mass media industries to sell something that, oftentimes, does not actually exist in reality. Indexical symbolism seems extinct as post-production masters digitally tweak products to look more like paintings and models to look made more of wax than flesh and blood.
Flagrant deception is the reason the program is currently under fire by the UK’s Advertising Standard’s Authority. In a recent Lancôme advertisement featuring Julia Roberts, L’Oreal Photoshopped the actress past the point of recognition. The ASA demanded this ad be pulled from shelves and “not appear in its current form again” due to its “misleading” nature, according to an article from PC World. The editing makes Julia Roberts look like a porcelain doll – creaseless, ageless, flawless. Since Julia is not made of ceramic, it is needless to say the image is grossly unrealistic.
L'Oreal digitally altered images of Julia Roberts
Retouching is nothing new. Since Photoshop’s advent in 1990, the program has been used to edit millions of images ranging from celebrities and fashion models to fast food, landscapes, and clothing. In 2009, Ralph Lauren was chastised for publishing an advertisement featuring the model Filippa Hamilton Photoshopped to emaciation, with her head appearing larger than her skeletal waist. Filippa stands 5 feet 8 inches tall at 120 pounds. Photoshopping her thinner seems like an oxymoron. Back in 1989 Oprah appeared on the cover of TV Guide with her head spliced onto Ann Margaret’s body – without the permission of either party.
Ralph Lauren digitally altered images of model Filippa Hamilton
Finding a Photoshopped image is far too easy to come by nowadays. All one must do is glance over any magazine rack at any convenience store to see tens of plastic faces staring back. Unfortunately, it is far more difficult to find an image that has not been doctored.
Scottish Liberal Democrats in the UK have been pushing for a ban against the use of airbrushing of photographs since 2009, according to The Guardian. They defend this stance with the claim that “overly perfected and unrealistic” images ultimately encourage false standards of beauty that harm and subjugate women. Jo Swinson, a Deputy Leader of the party, is a strong supporter of this prohibition. She claims there is a detrimental impact on women that comes from the “continuous drip-feed of touched up images.”
According to the PC World article, neither the ASA nor Swinson were allowed to compare L’Oreal’s final product with pre-production images of Julia Roberts due to a clause in Roberts’ contract stating that no one can see unaltered photographs of the actress. Thus, therein lays the Catch-22. Companies can continue to distort images with the simple refusal of supplying the original untouched photograph.
The crusade against the tobacco industry gained great assistance from the Truth campaign, a company committed to broadcasting commercials and printing advertisements describing the grim truth behind cigarettes’ health hazards and the greedy industry running the show. Truth states its mission as exposing “an industry manipulating its products, facts, and advertising.” It seems as if the tobacco and Photoshop industries have more in common than one would like to think.
Many believe these falsified images have led to the escalation of plastic surgery procedures, eating disorders, and self-esteem issues amongst young women. An article from the US News & World Report website discusses the issue of negative body image, citing that one out of every 10 individuals partakes in behaviors such as bingeing, over-exercising, skipping meal, and laxative abuse to obtain the picture-perfect body.
Companies such as Dove and high-profile individuals such as Kate Winslet and Rachel Leigh Cook are militating against the overuse of Photoshop. Cook stated in a conference, “I think it’s an absolute travesty that young women are seeing what the media is feeding them,” Cook told Pop Tarts. “It breaks my heart to be part of an industry and part of a machine that really pushes out these images and propagates these really terrible standards that are false.”
Check out some of these photographs of your favorite celebrities before and after the magic of Photoshop: www.chicagonow.com
