So these were the covers of last month’s French Elle. They are unretouched pictures of Monica Bellucci, Eva Herzigova and Sophie Marceau. This is a pretty touchy (get it!) subject within the industry, whether photoshop is necessary or in fact takes away from the actual ‘art’ of the picture and the uniqueness of people’s faces, ie wrinkles, freckles, moles. I come down in the middle, a very unusual place for me! I think that as long as you are aware that people are heavily altered to have no flaws at all and slimmed down to with an inch of what is anatomically possible then let magazines do that. I find these Elle covers a little uncomfortable to look at. I think you expect on a cover of a magazine that you’re paying for a certain standard of make-up, great hair and perhaps a piece of Armani, and anyway there are more attractive ways of shooting women without make-up although I applaud them for trying!
A perfect example of how out of control photoshop has got is Sienna Miller’s American Vogue cover a couple of years back. Anna Wintour said they eventually had to take her head from one photo and put it on another shot of her body…now that is extreme! I think there is a happy medium to photoshop and that’s what magazines need to find.
avogueidea 