I hadn’t heard anything about this program but caught it late last night. It’s available to watch on BBC IPlayer. Shown on BBC3 I think, Alesha Dixon, who was unhappy with her retouched cover for FHM, presented this show about retouching, magazines and the beauty industry. I thought she did a really good job of presenting the information, despite the obvious contradiction of having a beautiful professional model trying to expose the lies of the beauty industry.
Most interesting for me was the section where she spoke to schoolchildren. The younger girls, like we’ve seen in Child of Our Time, were sometimes disturbingly image-conscious, but the older high-school aged girls interviewed surprised me! I’m not sure how old they were, but at least 11-12, and they were so surprised when she demonstrated the level of retouching that goes on in magazines. One of them commented that she had no idea they could make people look thinner - and these are girls years beyond the ones that have already developed these ideas about ideal body image etc that she interviewed at primary school.
In another section Alesha ran a poll in a young girls magazine asking readers to vote on an image of her - chosen from 4, from a very distorted super retouched version, to an untouched photo. The final result was for one of the partly retouched images, but a close second was the number 1, super-retouched version - which I have to say, really didn’t look like her…or that much like most humans!
To be honest, I wasn’t really surprised by much of the social commentary of the show, but was surprised how well presented the information was, and was able to watch some of the professionals in action in London, and find out more about the world of magazine retouching - all interesting stuff!
Also, if anyone does watch it, look out for the section on the studio shoot. Alesha follows a woman to a studio shoot and retouching business to have photo’s taken, as she was insecure about her body and wanted good photos before her wedding. When they look through the untouched photos from the shoot it’s a great demonstration of just how much can be done without retouching. Just through good photography - composition, postures, lighting, a comfortable and happy subject - they took some really nice shots of her, some of which I really don’t think will have needed much work doing to them.
All in all - I recommend! Guardian reviewer Stuart Jeffries thinks that Alesha was a bad choice to present given the subject, and although I agree with him in part - especially the section with Cheryl Cole - I think she did a really good job. She had an intelligent and interested approach throughout the show, and as someone in the industry was able to connect with the subject and offer us an insiders perspective.
Posted in Photography, Uncategorized | Tags: bbc, magazines, Photography, retouching, tv







