When does digital retouching cross a line?
Americans are all too familiar with the effects of Photoshop. Standing in line at the checkout counter, consumers are bombarded with magazine covers featuring beautiful, digitally enhanced celebrities. Yet, Americans both accept and perpetuate this tradition of retouching. In fact, should a cover model not display a perfectly chiseled body, a scandal erupts. However, accepting as consumers are of photoshopped images in the celebrity world, they reject the retouching of photographs shared by news organizations. Actually, the retouching of images in this setting is considered unethical, as reality is neither truthfully nor accurately depicted. Recently, AP freelance photographer Narciso Contreras ignored this ethical standard, and as a result, is now facing serious consequences.
