Before the invention of the camera, (the first partially successful photograph of a camera image was made in approximately 1816 by Nicéphore Niépce) representations of people and things were made in the form of paintings. However, whereas a painting is a subjective representation by the artist, a photo is an image captured by a device void of opinion hence the statement that "the camera never lies".
However, with procedures such as double exposure, combination printing, montage, and solarisation, (first used by Man Ray and Henri Tabard in the 1920's) and the statement "the camera never lies", no longer held true.
Just as the painter could interpret and manipulate the "actuality/reality" of an object/person, today any photo editing program can be used to alter the appearance of a captured image.
In a report entitled "The Impact of Media Images on Body Image and Behaviours" it is suggested that on average we are consuming 3000 advertising images per day that feature heavily airbrushed men and women; we are presented with highly idealised and unrealistic representations of "beauty".
The Comparison Game; Vignettes (= small illustrations)
* She stands in front of the mirror naked. Above the mirror is a photo of how she wants to look. She tugs at the skin on her arms, stomach, and thighs. In disgust she turns away from the mirror.
"Why did I have to be born this ugly?" she asks herself as she puts her clothes back on.
* He waits in the toilets until the others are gone. The showers are silent. Carefully he undresses and turns on the water. The other boys are bigger, they have more developed muscles than him, they are almost men yet here he is; still built like a boy. "Why is my body not growing like the others, what is wrong with me, why can't I be just like the others?" he asks himself as his tears blend in with the falling water in the shower.
* "Just 20 minutes more" she says to herself as she walks to nowhere on the treadmill in the gym.
Since she was little she has battled with her weight and now, after the birth of her third child, her weight has become a health issue. "Why can't I put on weight, why is my sister so perfect and I have to be this skinny, tall, and lanky person?" she mutters under her breath.
* As he brushes his hair he notices that there is more hair in the brush than on his head. Panic rushes through him and he feels as if the floor just opened up under his feet. "Why me, why am I the one losing my hair at this young age?" he wonders. "Lots of thick, luscious hair is a sign of virility" his father always used to say.
* She waits until they are all asleep then she goes to the fridge and devours all that she can find. She knows it is wrong, but she can't help herself. "What's the point in trying, I'll never be as skinny as them anyway" she tells herself as she swallows a last bit of cake.
* As he hops in the car he realises that his stomach is very close to the steering wheel. In the morning his youngest had made fun of him and told him he had a "Santa stomach". "Hey, more of me to love," he had told his son, but deep inside he felt hurt. "I should be more like my brother, exercise more and drink less beer", he thinks as he drives off.
Standing in front of a mirror, are you happy with what you see?
According to studies, many of us are unhappy with our body images. We want to be slimmer, fitter, less wrinkled, more muscled, more tanned, taller, shorter, more voluptuous, less voluptuous, more solid, less solid, have less cellulite and on and on it goes. Often we compare ourselves with images of "perfection" as presented to us through media of varying forms.
Retouching images has been around for a long time, and as technology progresses, we are becoming better and better at creating "perfect" looking representations of human beings. "Flaws" are often airbrushed/retouched away and what we are presented with is no longer an actual representation, but an idealised image. (Bearing in mind that the ideal varies from culture to culture, and century to century.)
Does what we look like really determine our value as human beings?
Is it not possible that our "flaws" may perhaps in some ways be assets? In a sense, they are what makes us "us"?
Perhaps it is possible to feel comfortable in our own skin despite of not being perfectly matched to a fictional image of an ideal?
What we look like is not all we are, we are also what we think, what we feel, and how we act.
Joseph Carey Merrick, also named "Elephant man" because of his many deformities, became a good friend of surgeon Frederick Treves and many socialites in London due to his gentle personality and inner beauty. Which led me to wonder; we can alter our physical appearances through surgery, exercise, diets etc.. as well as through "airbrushing", but what about our inner character? Is it possible to "airbrush" away mean-spiritedness, greediness, selfishness, possessiveness, and so on?
If we spend hours and hours on looking good, do we also spend hours and hours on our inner qualities?
(A car may look fantastic on the outside, but unless its inner parts work, it will not take us very far.)
Human beings come in many sizes, shapes, and appearances and perhaps this is something to celebrate rather than reject in search for an impossible ideal?
Perhaps, rather than comparing ourselves with others or with idealised fictional images, we may flourish when we learn to feel comfortable in our own skin and in who we are.
“You are imperfect, permanently and inevitably flawed. And you are beautiful.” (Amy Bloom)
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