Deborah Walsh Kantor

Kirstin McNitt

English 3241

Final Project

December 4, 2007

Photos Lie

                After agreeing to pair up on the final assignment, Kirsten and I plan and discuss the focus of the project in an effort to choose a theme we both find interesting.  We knew the initial planning of a team project could determine the success or failure of the final presentation. After exchanging ideas, we choose to study how frequently Adobe Photo Shop and other software programs are used to change digital images and photographs.

                We discover that today’s magazines and other publications commonly edit photos that accompany feature articles. A number of celebrities, such as, Andy Rodderick, Kate Winslet and Jamie Lee Curtis, protest the practice while others require their published images be retouched prior to publication. Retouching and manipulating photos has become a common industry practice which alters the public perception of reality.  

                Typically, photo editors edit the published pictures to create a different image without informing their viewers of the modifications.  The changes occur for different reasons depending on the publication. Sometimes the news medium changes images for editorial reasons where as fashion or tabloid magazines seek to enhance or distract the individual’s appearance in the photo.  In effect, the image or photo manipulation projects an unnatural ‘reality’ to the viewer.  Often this target audience consists of young people who accept the images without question.

When young people adopt a perspective of beauty that offers an unattainable image they can develop self destructive behavior.  The profusion of eating disorders among teenage girls is one example of these phenomena. Young people emulate the images they see and will go to great lengths to conform to a fashionable look.  But what if that look is not real but arrived at through the advantage of a gifted photo editor with the right software?

                Our project attempts to encourage people to examine the images that bombard us in an increasingly digital society. At one time, people thought photos could not lie and we accepted a picture as a truth recreation of reality.  Recent technology makes it possible to reshape film and still photos with such ease that the public needs to be educated and prepared to analyze those pictures.  An aware viewer develops perception that recognizes the lie.  Hopefully our film will make the view pause and think about what they see. If it looks too good to be real then it’s probably the result of photo shop.