You may have recently read that the brilliant
Lena Dunham has been papped by Annie Leibovitz for American Vogue.
Alongside co-star Adam Driver (there's
something about that man), Lena appears: propped up seductively on the side of a bath; standing wistfully in the street with a bird on her head; and (my personal favourite) crossing a zebra crossing on Adam's shoulders wearing fluffy yellow slippers (as you do).
Unsurprisingly the feature has stirred up the big retouching debate because the images were retouched (well, of course they were. This is Vogue darling). But why has this jarred so much with people? The proliferation of retouched images in magazines is surely not news.
Perhaps it's because retouching is something Lena Dunham's alter ego, Hannah, from the hit series Girls, would never agree to.
Or would she. Would you?
You can read the full Jezebel article
here which shows exactly how the images were retouched (I'll let you decide whether the retouching is as minimal as they claim).
The article got me thinking though... should Lena have insisted on unretouched images for her shoot as a way of championing one of the things she is famed for? Namely, a desire to present herself
as she is, a woman who
'trumpets body positivity' with her non-conformist pear shape and womanly curves?
What would Hannah have done? Should we be disappointed that she was retouched?
As a makeup artist I sit somewhere in the middle of the retouching debate. I can see its merits from an artistic point of view (e.g. lighting, colour enhancement, the removal of flyaway hairs etc) but as a woman I can also see how potentially damaging it can be for people who are unaware of the ways in which retouching alters reality.
I often wonder what the reaction would be if one day a magazine committed to producing an entire edition without any retouching in it. Would it appear sloppy/unfinished? Would people buy the next issue? Or do we want to escape into 'perfect'?
Of course when it comes to makeup we are bombarded - often unknowingly - with heavily retouched images of flawless skin and perfect eyeliner. No wonder women often feel that wearing makeup is completely inaccessible!
Naturally, we all want to avoid the rather unsightly makeup blunders that include mascara goop and mis-matched foundation...but wearing makeup needn't be a chore. And it certainly doesn't have to be hard.
Just remember that the woman wearing that beautiful shade of lipstick in the advert probably got some on her teeth during the shoot...just like the rest of us.
Please note: It has not been my intention with this article to give a solid for or against response to the subject matter but rather to
raise the debate / pose questions. I have enormous respect for the skill and expertise of professional retouchers. The nature of retouching in our society has been well documented over the years and I simply wish to join the conversation as impartially as possible. Thank you.
Lena Dunham images courtesy of Vogue.
Before and after eye makeup courtesy of Faux Pink Retouching for Maybeline.
