"Photoshopped to Perfection"

Cafe,

The article

	"Photoshopped to Perfection: The graphics editing tool is
	praised for making people look their best and dissed for
	setting the bar too high"

was published in the _Image_ section of Sunday's _Los Angeles Times_
(2 Aug. 2009) and is available online at URL:

http://www.latimes.com/features/lifestyle/la-ig-photoshop2-2009aug02,0,3129812.story

I found the piece by reporter Jeannine Stein especially relevant, as I
struggle to finish my new write-up on 17th-century portraiture and
problems of representation (e.g., the commercially-successful artist
Sir Peter Lely was similarly critiqued by some 17th-century
contemporaries for beautifying his female subjects -- especially those
trademark "bedroom eyes" which he gave to female and male sitters
alike, "So that Mr Walker Ye Painter swore Lilly's Pictures was all
Brothers & Sisters").

The artist's technologies of choice may have changed over the
centuries, but most of the issues surrounding human portraiture
(aesthetics vs. truth, the politics of flattery and physiognomic art,
etc.) are pretty much the same. ;-)

Deborah
_____

Deborah Taylor-Pearce
[email protected]






___________________________________________________________________

Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: 
 [email protected]

To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit:
 http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe

For all Information Design matters:
 http://InformationDesign.org

Problems? Write to:
 [email protected]
___________________________________________________________________