The above is piss-poor photoshop work anyway. Read below for more information.
Friend, blogger and regular-reader Biodork posted about Photoshopped beauty yesterday based on a post inspired by atheist blogger Lousy Canuck Jason Thibeault. Even PZ Myers posted about perceived beauty recently here.
I read Biodork’s interpretation and then read through Lousy Canuck’s post, and then scanned through the links.
The posts detail how Photoshop is hugely responsible for creating unattainable beauty that influences young women. It gives them a false sense of beauty. Both posts leave out that it influences men as well.
I’m a photographer and work in Photoshop a lot. I’ve given the topic of beauty a lot of thought. I’m biased. I admit that wholly. I’m an advocate of Photoshop as a photography tool.
First, Photoshop is not the enemy. Ignorance is the enemy. Photoshop might be a factor, but it shouldn’t be called out as the enemy of what’s pretty and good.
The fact is that everyone, from gorgeous to normal, can benefit from Photoshop.
What I want to explain is that beauty is everywhere. I see it in the faces of almost everyone I meet. Finding beauty and relaying that is a learned trait. This is something my dad instilled in me. As an artist, it’s my job to make you look and feel beautiful, handsome, badass, cool, etc.
And while other people fail miserably at finding beauty in almost everyone — young, old, black, white, fat, skinny, and all traits this way and that — I find the beauty in people and attempt to convey that to you.
Even the most beautiful people in the world aren’t as gorgeous as you think. Stop any gorgeous, well-made up, cleanly waxed, beautiful bodied woman or man in time at 1/200th of a second, stare at the image, and I can show you 1,000 ugly things about them. But I can also show you 2,000 beautiful things.
Perception is key.
This is a long post and I’m going to put the rest below the fold. I broke up my thoughts and separated them with emboldened text. The last couple/few sentences sum up my thoughts to help you skim a little faster. Either that, or read the whole thing. I realize this isn’t a perfect argument, but it’s an alternative perspective of “Blame Canada Photoshop!”
Posted by Jeremy 
