Thursday, June 30, 2011

Magazine Photoshopping Linked to Eating Disorders

When Adobe invented Photoshop, I bet they never expected to be attacked for being linked to eating disorders. Yes Photoshop is being used by the fashion industry and yes they take the editing to extremes. But to blame Photoshop for the problem is absurd. I never heard the AMA blame the airbrush for the same problems and the fashion industry was using that before Photoshop.

In a report from ABC news: "Photoshopping, especially as it's related to children and adolescents, gives them an unrealistic expectation of what they might expect to look like as they grow up," said Jeremy Lazarus, AMA's president-elect. "So there are adverse health consequences as a result of that." That's quite a leap. It seems to be easy to pass the blame onto others......like a computer program.

Does the fashion industry need to get it's act together... yes. Should it be pointed out ...yes. but to say "So there are adverse health consequences as a result of that." is a bit much. A lot of factors play into eating disorders, but I don't think an over photoshopped image is the cause. I fear that we will have the Fashion Police. We already have the Food Police. With this I fear the politicians will join the bandwagon to make political hay from this.

Fashion industry....get real....Fashion Police....go away......politicians you've got a lot more to worry about like the economy and the jobless problem.

One final note to my editorial photographer friends.....stay far away from this problem as you can. Keep it real and keep the news photos, other than exposure adjustments etc, well enough alone.

I wonder if Adobe expected their product to be turned into a verb and used against them and their product.

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