Friday, December 7, 2007

Evolution of Beauty

The changes on the model were:
They made the lips bigger
They made her neck longer and thinner
They made her brow lower, her eyebrows higher, and her eyes bigger
They changed the shading on her face to make it look slightly different shape
They smoothed the edges of her face

The resulting photograph drastically changes the truth. However, as this is not photojournalism, the picture is not intended to show the truth. It is an advertisement, and when do advertisements tell the whole truth anyway?
If the picture is intended to show the person as they really are, then it's wrong to do so much manipulation. If the picture is merely intended to advertise a product, and the subject is voluntary, then there's not much of a problem.
It would be wrong to change the subject's face in anyway if she did not give her consent.
Fashion photography is only related to photojournalism in the sense that they use cameras to capture images of people. While photojournalism is intended to show the truth, fashion journalism is intended to make their subjects look beautiful by whatever means. The ethics of photojournalism deal with truth and viewer impact, while the ethics of fashion photography only has to deal with the subject's consent.

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