As a photographer I am obviously very aware of the powers of Photoshop and such editing suites. Images can be enhanced, edited and manipulated in beautiful and amazing ways.
I love this-it’s all part of the creative process, and it wasn’t just started with digital photography, it was done in the dark room and comes hand in hand with the taking of the photograph in my opinion. Shooting the image is only half of the process.
As a 29 year old woman though-it does sometimes worry me. Photographs of celebrities we compare ourselves to day in and day out are fundamentally fake. It’s damaging to the everyday women’s self esteem.
What has come up in trend quite suddenly though, at the tips of everybody with a smart phone’s fingers, are filters.
Yes they are adorable, hilarious and just a bit of fun. But when we are applying, lets call them ‘beautifying’, filters to every photograph we take we are showing a misleading representation of ourselves. It’s another unrealistic expectation that is being seen constantly. I’m not so worried about the dog face or the silly hats-it’s just another way of being fun and creative. But the filter where your complexion is completely smoothed over, eyes enlarged with a sparkled added to them, rosy cheeks and cute pink lips…I worry are potentially damaging.
Of course it’s nice to give yourself a refreshing look when you’ve just woken up after a crap nights sleep, but what message are we sending out? What damage is it doing to our self esteem when we not longer feel comfortable showing ‘truthful’ images of ourselves?
More importantly-what message are we sending the next generation? The you should only show a ‘presentable’ face? That in order to be seen as attractive you should have certain features?
That everyone else is leading a glamorous life and has their shit together whilst you’ve accidentally turned on the face forward camera and you are feeling very much less than ideal….
Ok, I admit it-I am getting a bit deep and dark here.
Filters are fun-I love them. I use them all the time. I suppose I just want to make sure we are moving towards a future where we see more faces without a ‘mask’ than with. Imperfections should be celebrated and not hidden.