How Much Fakery is Too Much Fakery?

On the wall of the art studio at my high school was a quote from Pablo Picasso: "Art is the lie that tells the truth."

In fashion photography, it seems to have become the lie that tells a lie.

With the after-Christmas sales well under way, I've been thinking about restocking my closet a bit, which has had me paying more attention to catalogues and magazines.

Photographs have been manipulated since the technology was first invented, and fashion photographs have always traded in an induced sense of inadequacy -- or why hire preternaturally beautiful people to wear the clothes? True, it's been years since I was young enough, and foolish enough, to think, "If I wear that dress / sweater / coat / pair of pants / whatever, I'll look as good as she does." But every year, it seems, the standards of "pretty enough" -- and especially, "thin enough" -- get higher and more unobtainable.

The image above -- of former Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton -- has been widely shared on the Internet, at sites like BoingBoing.net and Jezebel.com (where it was included in the site's 2009 "Photoshop of Horrors Hall of Shame"). Comments poured in, both about the absurdity of the image itself (how many women, even extraordinarily thin ones, have a head larger than their pelvis?), and about the decision by Ralph Lauren to terminate Hamilton's contract because, at 5'9" and 120 lbs., she is too fat.

With rates of eating disorders rising in the industrialized world (and now affecting young men as well as young women), there have been calls for legislative restrictions. In late September, for example, the UK's Telegraph reported on calls in France to require digitally-enhanced photographs to carry clear warnings that changes have been made to the image.

In a brief article, New York magazine reported on proposed French and British legislation, and noted that the "U.K.'s Committee of Advertising Practice, which is responsible for the country's code of advertising, just received a report authored by more than 40 academics recommending a ban on Photoshopped ads targeted at girls younger than 16."

I'm not sure that legislation is the best solution. I'm more heartened by the late December rally, reported by Jezebel and New York, protesting the use of images that have been altered to the point of unreality. Sponsored by the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women, the small demonstration was held in front of Ralph Lauren's flagship New York City store at 72nd Street and Madison Avenue, and deserved more coverage than it got.