This has to be one of the best things I've seen all year. The Huffington Post put together a slide show of the biggest photo shop fails of the year and I had to include it on BeautySweetSpot for two reasons – one, because it's hysterical that professionals can do such a bad job and two, to remind all of you that most of the time, probably 99.9%, what you see isn't real.
We're inundated by images of models and celebrities hundreds of times per day and the idea of perfection is sickening. It's absolutely shocking to me that magazine photo editors and Editor-in-Chiefs who stand by the "integrity" of their publications continue to let this go on to the extent that it does. They all want to relate to the "real girl" and talk to her. Each year they ask, "Who is our reader? What is she like? What does she like to do?" So they can try to best relate to her. Do they ever step back and ask, "What type of effect are we having on our reader?" Apparently not, or maybe content wise, but what about the images? What about ethics?
I'm not as shocked by the fashion designers who continue to chose models who seem to nearly have eating disorders to showcase their clothes. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because I'm in the editorial space and have worked at a magazine and seen the photo-shopping done, over and over again.
With American culture being so celebrity obsessed, and the pressures of the "idea of perfection" still being planted in front of our faces and in our minds over and over again every single day, I don't see this image or photo shopping changing any time soon. This is why it's important we remind ourselves it's all fake.
Take a look for yourself at The Huffington Post's collection of The Biggest Photoshop Fails of 2010. In the photo above Kimora Lee Simmons on the left "borrowed" her legs from the model on the right for her fragrance ad campaign. I'd like to "borrow" her legs too... just sayin'.
