At some point I lost track of (and most interest in) all the hand-wringing articles about Photoshop & body image. Even so, I found this talk by model Cameron Russell interesting. She’s unusually sharp (her mom founded ZipCar, it turns out) and compares images of her with the real person.
Her points about models’ insecurities remind me of life in Silicon Valley: the more fortunate one is, the more one feels compelled to do & achieve even more (and the worse for not doing it). When I’m touring a potential kindergarten I think, “What kickass disruptive badassery am I missing out on?” I never think “I was 26 and living in Palo Alto and working on Photoshop”; it’s all “Facebook was taking shape down the street; what kind of loser misses out on that?” Talk about kindergarten… [Via]
The use of the word “hand-wringing” is rather startling, since this would seem to be an attempt to negate a broad discussion within society about the role of image editing applications, Photoshop primarily, in shaping cultural attitudes towards how we perceive ourselves and beyond that, the nature of beauty itself.
Your position seems to be that “Photoshop doesn’t over-retouch photos, people do.” Sound familiar? Taking responsibility for the uses and societal effects of products that businesses create and sell is something we’re seeing more of, and with good reason.
Instead of sponsoring photo exhibitions such as the current Faking It, which seems like a PR effort to convince people that photos have been messed with since Day 1 so why blame Photoshop, it would be good see Adobe actually grapple with such issues, since I’m sure it has much to contribute to the ongoing conversation. Has there been a White Paper or something similar that I missed?
Bravo Cosmo. VERY good questions and suggestions!