Posted 7:07 AM by Blah blah

Creating Women from Nothing

From my favorite Supermodel Blog (Supermodels are Lonelier than You Think):

"Pictures of Kate Winslet [see pics] digitally altered to give her supermodel proportions have prompted fresh debate about the 'tidying up' of photographs of celebrities.

On her insistence, Winslet is on GQ magazine's front cover in a revealing black basque, showing skinny legs, a tiny waist and razor-sharp cheekbones thanks to computer enhancement. Inside the magazine, the 27-year-old actress poses topless in high heels and tights, looking even thinner with an impossibly flat tummy....

Experts said virtually all glossy pictures of stars these days, except those snapped by paparazzi, were digitally altered. But the Winslet shots sit a trifle incongruously with the accompanying interview, in which she berates women for equating sex appeal with being thin.

Bob Martin, production director of the retouching department of Metro Imaging in Soho, central London, said: 'I would say 95 per cent of pictures have been altered. Those we work on range from minimum clean-ups to major surgery.'

He works with leading celebrity photographers including David Bailey and Mario Testino, whose pictures of Elizabeth Hurley and Sir Elton John were subjected to the process for the cover of Vogue last month.

Hurley, in silk bra and matching knickers, was shown with elegant long legs poised over a piano as the singer, looking half his age, grinned back in a red rhinestone suit.

Mr Martin said: 'We work to a photographer's brief. But, in fact, the advances in technology over the last 10 years mean that you can create women from nothing.' "

Also, read this ironic article from last fall's New York Times: Globalization of Beauty Makes Slimness Trendy!

It's a good break from hearing about
Shaquille O'Neal and Yao Ming or the
naked Carina Lau photo stories.