another rant about photoshopping...

I've surfed a few sites lately that make my heart ache.  You know, I am guilty of removing blemishes.  I am guilty of taking black eyes off people who get into bar brawls the night before their portraits are scheduled.  (Yes, Mr. O - this means YOU lol)  I have resorted on more than one occasion to the photoshop method of face washing when a booger or a bit of a milk moustache was missed.  I admit to fussing with things like soft focus and diffusers to minimize the appearance of red blotchy skin.  I will over or underexpose a picture on purpose for creative intent.  And yup - every now and again I go a little crazy playing around and doing weird fun silly things - adding textures or applying funky colours or whatever.  But I think that for the most part I have remained fairly 'true' to my mission to not make people look so perfect they no longer resemble not only themselves, but humans to boot.

What frustrates me SO much is that for the most part, these are talented photographers who (in my never humble opinion) ruin perfectly beautiful pictures by marbelizing the eyes and removing the skin texture to the point the people look unrealistic.  I completely understand the desire to remove blemishes and bruises and little scratches that happen at the wrong time for getting pictures taken, which is why I will remove 'temporary' things like that.  But the perfectly smooth skin thing, the enhanced lip size and colour thing, the whitened teeth thing?  I'm sorry, but people have pores, their lips are the size they are and come in varying shades of pale pink to brown, and even babies have a slight yellow hue to their teeth!

I know I'm in the minority here, but I cherish the laugh lines and eye wrinkles and forehead creases I've earned by laughing and smiling and worrying about the people I love.  (I could do without the cellulite on my bum, but I earned that too... lol)  Plastic surgery is, of course, the manifestation of us being repeatedly told that the way we look isn't somehow ideal. Isn't good enough.  And we start while they are infants.  Again, I have to ask, WHAT are we teaching our sons and daughters when we hire someone to take their picture, and FIX the way they look?

I won't name names or share weblinks - it's a creative choice they make and so I try and view it as their artistic interpretation of reality.  I can only hope that the parents of these picture perfect children are doing their part to make the kids understand that the images they see of themselves are just that - a creative interpretation, an illustration based on a photo - and that the mages they see of themselves aren't real, and aren't something they ought ever consider they need to 'live up to.'  Sadly, I'm not hopeful. If you want your kids to be hugely successful when they grow up, push them into becoming a plastic surgeon since it seems as a society we're breeding a whole new clientele base, starting from birth.

I didn't touch (gen)Eric's pictures except to convert a second set to black and white.  I thought I might go in and tweak a few and when I opened them I honestly could not bring myself to touch a single image.  The lighting isn't perfect, the boy is covered in cheese, people have weird emotional expressions on their faces, and every single picture is exactly as it should be.  I think I've reached a new level of passion and understanding about WHY I take pictures in the first place.