Lie

[fj]

“The people who complain about retouching are the first to say, ‘Get this thing off my arm.’ ” I mentioned the Dove ad campaign that proudly featured lumpier-than-usual “real women” in their undergarments. It turned out that it was a Dangin job. “Do you know how much retouching was on that?” he asked. “But it was great to do, a challenge, to keep everyone’s skin and faces showing the mileage but not looking unattractive.”

Retouchers, subjected to endless epistemological debates—are they simple conduits for social expectations of beauty, or shapers of such?—often resort to a don’t-shoot-the-messenger defense of their craft, familiar to repo guys and bail bondsmen. When I asked Dangin if the steroidal advantage that retouching gives to celebrities was unfair to ordinary people, he admitted that he was complicit in perpetuating unrealistic images of the human body, but said, “I’m just giving the supply to the demand.” (Fashion advertisements are not public-service announcements.)

Pascal Dangin, master digital retoucher, in "Pixel Perfect: Pascal Dangin’s virtual reality.", Lauren Collins, The New Yorker, 2008-05-12

As found for me by jpeace, who turns 28 today, and brings me the best gifts from the Internet every night.

Comments

[allanh.livejournal.com]

One of the reasons I enjoy reading your LJ - other than your adventures, of course - is you post links to the damnedest articles that fascinate me. This is one such example. Thank you!

[mondragon.livejournal.com]

Thanks to both of you for this.

[mangosteen]

...and people wonder why I'm so ambiguous about removing whole relatives from wedding photos.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

betch please!

[dpnash.livejournal.com]

Very cool article.

The description of the Steven Meisel photoshoot brings up something that's crossed my mind a lot recently - for example with Annie Leibovitz's elaborate ads for Disney featuring celebrities dressed as Disney characters. When the final image is something pieced together like that, and when it isn't really Leibovitz or Meisel doing the piecing together - then why do they need to Leibovitz or Meisel in the first place?

In the article, it describes Meisel shooting the two models individually against a black background. Why couldn't Dangin have done that himeself? It's not that hard to do, and he clearly knows how to, since it was his own suggestion to change the lighting. How much money did Meisel get paid for basically signing his name to something that he did very little actual work on?

Nice work if you can get it? Somebody tell me how!