Verbatim: Capturing life, blemishes and all

  • By Claire Kincaid
  • Sunday, April 20, 2014 6:14pm
  • NewsSchools

This week while editing pictures of my friends and I from Prom, I used a popular photo editing software called Photoshop. I used settings to adjust the lighting and make pesky skin blemishes completely invisible. After spending a few minutes enhancing our pictures, I started wondering about the moral implications of what I was doing.

Problems of low self-esteem run rampant among teenagers, especially among teen girls. Teens compare themselves to advertising which display women with perfect bodies, makeup, and hair. When visual perfection is constantly forced on us as a promise of happiness and success, how could we not hope for it? This begins the painful quest by both young and old to work for the perfect body. It can’t be a shocker that this journey ends with disappointment. Because models, who are beautiful to begin with, are Photoshopped and edited beyond any blemish, advertising creates an unattainable goal, and a wild goose chase for anyone who believes their visual fiction.

When photography was first invented, it quickly gained popularity as an art form because it could depict truth and capture images closer than any other medium ever could. Photos quickly strayed from a pure depiction of the world as photographers learned how to manipulate photos in order to increase aesthetics and beauty. Though everyone knows that photos can be changed easily, we still recognize photos as the closest art form we have to sight besides video.

When a writer creates fiction, they make it up. No one feels lied to because they don’t expect it to be fact. The same principle is applicable to photography. When people look at an advertisement featuring a beautiful person, they feel deceived when they learn that the image is fake and the model who posed for the picture might not even be recognizable as the person in the advertisement.

When considered an art form and visual fiction, manipulated photos are beautiful and interesting often because nothing like them exists. I recently discovered how to digitally paint with an art tablet and stylus “paintbrush.” Using software, I can create on the computer similarly to how I would with a paintbrush on paper. With enough practice and skill, I could create a digital painting that looks exactly like a photo. Because of this developing new art form and the ease of manipulating them, digital photographs are becoming less reliable in courts of law. We can no longer trust what we see.

The problem is that people naturally trust what they see when it appears as reality. It is easy enough for a person to distinguish that a cartoon character or image created with paint is fiction, but when something appears real through the help of digital technology, we believe it to be so. We need to train ourselves to look at advertising as potential fiction, and not hold ourselves to the impossible standards it sets. We need to look past the advertising urging us to look perfect and see our beauty as we naturally are: blemishes and all.

Claire Kincaid is a student at Soldotna High School.

More in News

Member Tom Tougas, far right, speaks during a meeting of the Kenai Peninsula Borough Tourism Industry Working Group in Soldotna, Alaska, on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Tourism working group rejects bed tax, recommends seasonal sales tax adjustment

The document includes a section that says the borough could alternatively leave its tax structure exactly as it is.

The rescued sea otter pup looks at the camera in this undated picture, provided by the Alaska SeaLife Center. (Kaiti Grant/Alaska SeaLife Center)
Stranded otter pup rescued from Homer beach

She is estimated to be around 2 months old and was found alone by concerned beach walkers.

Kenai Peninsula College Director Cheryl Siemers speaks to graduates during the 55th commencement ceremony at Kachemak Bay Campus on Wednesday, May 7, 2025, in Homer, Alaska. (Delcenia Cosman/Homer News)
Kenai Peninsula College leadership sees temporary transitions

KPC Director Cheryl Siemers is serving as interim UAA chancellor, while former KBC director Reid Brewer fills in her role.

Ash-Lee Waddell (center) of Homer is one of six recipients of the 2025 First Lady’s Volunteer Award at the Governor’s Residence in Juneau, Alaska, on May 13, 2025. Photo courtesy of the Office of the Governor
First lady honors Alaska volunteers

Volunteers from Homer and Nikiski were recognized.

The front of the Kenai Police Department as seen on Dec. 10, 2019. (Photo by Brian Mazurek/Peninsula Clarion)
Update: Middle schooler reported missing found after 24-hour search

The student was seen leaving Kenai Middle School at around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.

The Oceania Riviera stands out against a bluebird sky at the Homer Harbor on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. Over 1200 passengers from aboard the boat explored Homer throughout the beautiful day. (Chloe Pleznac/Homer News)
Homer tourism season kicks off with arrival of cruise ships

The first cruise ship of the season arrived April 28 with 930 passengers.

tease
‘Tomorrow — remember you are still a learner’

Kachemak Bay Campus graduated 49 students during its 55th annual commencement hosted on May 7.

Mt. Redoubt rises above Cook Inlet and the Anchor River drainage as fireweed is in bloom, as seen from Diamond Ridge Road on Friday, July 22, 2022, near Homer, Alaska. (Photo by Michael Armstrong/Homer News)
Native plants provide lifeline for local songbirds

Shorebird Festival talk highlights importance of native plants.

Sterling Elementary School students collect trash from the banks of the Kenai River near Bing’s Landing in Sterling, Alaska, during the 10th Annual Kenai River Spring Cleanup on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Cleaning up the mess that’s left behind

Students from six local schools combed for litter during the 10th Annual Kenai River Spring Cleanup.

Most Read