This issue of over-photoshopped images has been on my mind since I saw the insanely faked image of Pamela Anderson in a Mac makeup ad. I didn’t recognise her and only later knew it was her when I saw a photo of her, the way she looks in reality at about 40 years old, standing beneath the poster. I’ve also started to see photos of Mila Jovovich using the same techniques of erasing all personality from the model’s face.
The video can be seen at danah boyd’s blog in her post about it. I link directly to her post, and not the video on YouTube, because I appreciate her article and the comments written on it also.
Other insightful and interesting posts about this can be found at the Proactive Living blog, and another over at the SmartCanucks blog.
My final point is… we’ve seemed to have hit a sort of breaking point in this issue. It’s beginning to get a lot wider coverage and I’m seeing it all over the blogosphere. Truly, awareness is key. But, in fact, is this really going to change anything? I doubt it. It’s just a further example of what’s been happening in video games for ages: the pixel is far more instantly gratifying than reality. Society has an addictive personality, and is easily addicted to new things. I don’t see this as something that will go away.
Leave a Reply