The Other Kind of Photoshop Fraud

Retouching is a hot-button issue in magazine publishing these days, thanks in no small part to Jezebel, Nick Denton's girlie blog, which exploded into consciousness with a brilliant publicity stunt built around the "before" and "after" versions of a Faith Hill Redbook cover.

Most Photoshopping on women's magazine covers is of that nature: making actresses look younger and thinner. But there's another variety, as one veteran airbrusher reminds us in this Folio article.

"Retouching should be like wearing light makeup, not to the point where you can't recognize the girl anymore," says Self art director Petra Kobayashi. "We retouch to make the models look bigger, healthier."

One gets the sense that Kobayashi thinks this sort of photo-fudging is more ethical, since it's not making women feel bad about their arm-jiggle and muffin-tops. But is it really? Or should a magazine like Self -- which is about health, not fashion -- perhaps not be using models and actresses so gaunt that they need digital enhancement to camouflage their sunken cheeks, jutting collarbones and bulging veins? If models can't look naturally healthy at the weight Self prefers to shoot them, maybe it's because they're too damn skinny? And perhaps, instead of Photoshopping the apples into their cheeks and tone into their ropy arms, the magazine should try casting "bigger, healthier" specimens to begin with?