Photoshopped! Media's fascination with the tool continues

A picture speaks a thousand words; a photoshopped image speaks even louder. Case in point: Daily Mirror’s recent decision to take an image of a young blonde with a bong and turn her into Amy Winehouse. The manipulation is tragic and disturbing, considering it’s not even been a month since she died. Then there’s the complete disregard for journalistic ethics in the service of chasing eyeballs. But then this isn’t the first time Photoshop has been used to do the dirty work. Over the years, media has consistently manipulated photographic evidence to make it work in their favour. The advertising industry is addicted to the air brush, and lifestyle magazines aren’t far behind, whether in India, or abroad. And then there are the regular folks who use photoshop to touch up their Facebook pictures, ensuring the end product is far more appealing than the original. While we do it for vanity, big brands turn to Photoshop to sell and get a reaction. Some do it with precision, while most deploy not an ounce of subtlety. Photographic history is rife with examples ranging from purely aspirational, to scandalous. Here’s a quick look… Aspirational: Magazine covers tap this baby brilliantly! Shaving a few kilos here and there may seem like a task in real life, but not so much under the masterful strokes of the photoshop pen. The waist goes down from 28 to 24, and cellulite seems like stuff urban legends are made of. You look at them, aspire to be what you see, and mirror the hope that even the celeb plastered on the cover would have—of looking unrealistically perfect (Aishwarya Rai in a recent shoot for Elle, India or Freida Pinto in Vanity Fair being the most recent to be air brushed). Not to forget, top Indian actors and actresses who are made several shades lighter for cosmetic giants. Advertisers constantly pander to the end consumers’ fixation for all things white (eg. A girl gets a job because she’s fairer than the other equally deserving candidate—go figure!). A product of a Photoshop, the beauty industry thrives on it. Hype it so it hits you: Making ‘more’ of a ’less’, and vice versa of a situation often works wonders, creating a significant buzz. So while the recent Slut-walk in Delhi was nothing to write home about, wide angle shots made up for the low attendance. A recent pro-regime rally in Yemen was photoshopped to twice its size by a government-run paper to make its leaders look popular. The internet was also recently abuzz with a picture from North Korea. The image shows people walking through the water, however, they are surprisingly dry. This was immediately after reports came from North Korea that heavy rains had flooded farmlands and destroyed homes. Rumour has it that North Korea released the picture in an attempt to get foreign aid. [caption id=“attachment_55620” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Daily Mirror’s Amy Winehouse photo.”] [/caption]Dramatic impact: The June 19th issue of The Economist had a picture of Obama on the cover, standing alone on a Louisiana beach. Missing from the picture was the local representative he was standing next to. Some small-fry ruining your shot of the big guy? Hey, let’s just air-brush him out. Similarly, then Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was left red-faced last year after a photoshop fracas over an official image of a meeting at the White House. The original, taken during the Middle East peace talk, showed Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Binyamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, trailing behind Barack Obama with Hosni Mubarak right at the back. Of course, the state-run daily Al-Ahram couldn’t digest this and ensured it had Mubarak leading the powerful pack, when it run the picture. Scandalise, titillate, and tease: Early this year, Selena Gomez was crying herself hoarse denying rumours that nude pictures of her circulating on the internet were fake. Closer home, a national news channel in 2009 claimed that a hotel had leaked pictures of naked Preity Zinta taking a shower. Both pictures were found to be fake. Magazines often love to manipulate an image to guarantee it flies off the news-stands. Zooey Deschanel, famous for her role in 500 Days Of Summer and inherent quirk factor, appeared on the cover of Flare magazine looking oddly plastic, with plumped up lips. Go back five years from now and pick up Madonna on the cover of Out magazine…you wouldn’t know what you are looking at. With a missing ear and a diminishing nose, Madonna looks like she’s really ‘out’ of this world. Christina Aguilera miraculously lost oodles on the cover of W magazine. Maybe the good people at W thought at the time of the shoot Christina had time travelled to Genie In A Bottle days. Whether it’s removing Hrithik Roshan’s thumb on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar anniversary issue, or rubbing out Hillary Clinton from the Situation Room in Jewish newspaper Der Tzitung, photoshop will always rule the roost as long we remain obsessed with scandal, beauty, and celebrities. Take a look at some of the wonders Photoshop has created.. [fpgallery id=135]