3 MARCH 2015- UPDATE: Apparently the 'leaked' image of Cindy Crawford is in fact a fake and her husband posted an Instagram of her on holiday to prove it. I think my point still stands however - even if it illustrates just how easy it is to make us believe what we think we see. I wonder too if this was the point the person who 're-touched' this image was trying to make? I don't think it matters if it's been manipulated to show a good or bad side. It may be a fake but it's not far off the mark when it comes to other celebrity images we've been sold. Either way a little restraint and responsibility is needed I feel.
The idea of an un-edited image being used in todays advertising world seems so far fetched and risky that it's become clear just how much of a manipulated product we are being sold. Especially when seeing the un-retouched body of a fit and strong 49 year old woman makes the headlines. In this recent case it was not the paparazzi that captured one of the worlds most beautiful women in the 'real' flesh but a high flying perpetuater of beauty myths - the fashion magazine. Cindy Crawford featured in underwear for Marie Claire and the raw images left as nature intended them caused an enormous stir.
You begin to sense the rumbling long before the war cry is heard and in this case it was the endless 'comments' section that caught my attention, (although in this case finally for all the right reasons). People were applauding this move and applauding loudly, almost a little too loudly, and you start to think perhaps the crowd benches might fall down with the deafening sounds of a lot of rather tired, mislead and angry public.
I loved the quote recently asking what would the advertising world do if women started loving their bodies... a lot of people would be out of a job that's for sure.
Let's be clear this is not a woman who has 'let herself go'. She is fitter than most even half her age. She has always been a role model of the healthy body type and she is clearly continuing to be just that.
My only real comment on this fabulous picture is that it shouldn't have come as the surprise that it did. It shouldn't have been such a revealing look at what has been arguably one of the most photographed women of this generation. This should have caused not even a ripple on the minds of an audience who should already know what a 40 something body looks like, or a 50 or a 30 or a 60 - or any woman besides the woman who only lives inside an editing program. There was even an article recently showing us what a 'real' Victoria Secret's model looked like - and they truly have some of the finest sculpted bodies around. Even Justin Biebers recent "leaked" Calvin Klein un-retouched images had a lot of us cringing at the awkwardness of a young male body which hadn't seen quite the gym hours (or had the genes ahhem..) Mr Klein would have liked us to believe.
I am all for making an image more 'clean', removing a crease or a fold from a garment or a stray piece of hair, or even lightening a shadow caused by bad lighting. I think these changes can make a photograph more appealing but I feel that we've come to rely too heavily on the editing programs that we use, and I myself have fallen into this trap time and again. I have retouched images to within an inch of their life so they looked more 'professional'. But when you take a beautiful, young, thin, fit woman like Jennifer Lawrence below and distort that into something it didn't need to be made into then there is something very wrong.
Jennifer Lawrence
It's not even a new problem. Painters used to retouch their work all time by omitting details that their clients clearly had in reality. They took off a few pounds here and there from the odd queen or king and their post make-up skills I'm sure made even the unhealthiest of monarchs look like she'd just got hold of some CoverGirl.
But the pendulum - as it tends too do, has swung a little to far out and when our image of reality no longer resembles anything that we see 'out there' then somewhere in the deep subconscious depths of our brains insecurities and all the other nasties start to breed. I wonder when the soft focus, plastic image will begin to fade into something else. But I also don't want that something else to be the raw and sometimes disturbing images that began to appear in the late 90's. Heroin chic with the now healthy Jamie King at the forefront, took off and the results were like a disposable camera being found the morning after the night before. I still want to see beauty, I still love seeing healthy, shining images, but I don't want to see the dark aftermath of a drug binge or the bubblegum packaging of a Barbie Doll.
Jamie King
Again like so much, only time will tell. I am also now faced with a selection of images from our shoot in Mexico that I have to 'clean' while practicing what I preach and allow the image to be as un-varnished as I can. That really is the least I can do.
Here's us laying it out there for you, just a 'clean' as promised!
For the record, this is what a gorgeous, healthy, fit and very blessed 40 something body looks like - even though she'll wished I'd re-touched this more - but isn't it perfect as it is?
X Jo