14 DAY TRIAL // As the Internet is now in complete freak out mode over the excessive use of Photoshop in fashion photos, one model dares to speak up for the practice of retouching promotional images. Victoria’s Secret Angel Erin Heatherton says there’s nothing bad about it, if you think about it.
If the images were to claim to sell reality, then Photoshopping them would be bad indeed, Erin says in an interview with Fashionista.
As it happens, they don’t. The photos we see in fashion magazines aren’t meant to represent reality and should not be interpreted as such: they’re just little pieces of a puzzle called a fantasy world.
Consequently, altering them to be different from reality is totally ok.
“I think it’s people’s own prerogative to be able to look at something and know the difference between ‘this is what someone looks like with makeup on’ and ‘this is what they look like in real life’. This is what happens when you do a photo shoot; retouching is an essential part of our job, you know,” Erin says.
“We’re not selling reality; we’re selling a story. It’s all about creating this fantasy. And I don’t think people should confuse fantasy and reality because no one is perfect – we all know that, and I think people should embrace themselves and not really focus on where people are depicted as perfect and where they’re not,” she adds.
Because of this, fretting over how much an image has been retouched is a complete waste of time, the Angel believes.
Heatherton underlines that, while the practice might not be “fair,” it’s ultimately down to each one of us to be able to tell the difference between reality and fantasy.
“I think that’s something that children should be taught by their parents, it should be taught in schools. Healthy body image is not something that you’re going to learn from fashion magazines,” she says.
Just to get an idea of the kind of retouching she’s talking about, Jezebel has this amazing gallery of before and after photos of Victoria’s Secret models, and how even their near-perfect bodies are not “perfect enough” for promo pics.