It is almost impossible to see an image in today's society that has not been retouched. We all know about the 'airbrushed' supermodels in magazines but how about your friends on facebook airbrushing themselves in iphoto before posting their photos online? Its obvious when a photo has been made to look vintage through various filters easily accessible on the iphone, but how about using photoshop to blur out blemishes and the clone tool to remove moles and to give a more defined jawline? Embarrasingly enough these are edits that I recently made to a picture of myself and as my finger hovered over the mouse about to click to post, I stopped myself. I decided that I didn't want to share a false impression. But for so long I have been editing photos of myself for the public world that I now feel that all 'real' photos of myself are too ugly. This makes me sick. What's next? People retouching their own children?
When I lived in Seoul, S Korea for a year I had a passport photo taken for an ID. When it was returned to me, the zit on my cheek was not there! A Korean coworker told me that it's very normal for them to retouch your photo before printing it. I kind of liked it but at the same time it's a bit strange to retouch a photo that is solely for identification purposes.
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