How do the celebrities depicted in glossy magazines achieve glowing skin and “perfect” bodies?
Retouch (2022, 18 min) is a short documentary that sheds light on the highly covert world of professional image editing.
Featuring interviews and technical demonstrations with three generations of New York City-based photo “retouchers,” the film unpacks their craft and work on campaigns for fashion brands such as Valentino and Dior, and celebrities like Naomi Campbell, Natalie Portman, and Salma Hayek.
As beauty standards evolve to embrace more “natural” looks and greater diversity, Retouch asks why retouching persists, highlighting the growing moral tensions between retouchers, their advertising clients, and consumers.
Praise for Retouch . . . .
As an Editor-in-Chief of many fashion and beauty magazines, I was deeply ensconced in the issue of retouching and caught between what our consumers wanted (more natural looking covers) and what the celebrities and their agents wanted (perfection). Retouch unearths those issues and looks at them through the eyes of the experts who do the work (sometimes artistry), people who must remain in the shadows of the big name photographers, and who might not be comfortable today even advertising what they do.
— Lesley Jane Seymour, Editor-in-Chief, Marie Claire and More Magazine
“. . . a teaching tool that highlights for students the importance of thinking critically about the images we are bombarded with and take for granted on a daily basis. Retouch does a masterful job at highlighting the evolution of retouching—from the actual painting on a photo to having an entire photo, environment included, retouched to fit into the current standard of beauty. I appreciated how the documentary allows the viewer to hear first hand from experts in the field of retouching to share how their craft has also evolved with technology.”
— Heather D. Clark, Ph.D., Lecturer in Anthropology of Beauty
“I especially liked getting to see the mark ups, and the evolution from light to heavy retouching. I grew up modeling in the 90s, and I remember well the perfectionism . . . having to get the shot perfect on film, and assessing it via polaroids, and even I had to go home from a few shoots when I had break outs, which I guess wouldn’t happen now. Retouch captures well this side world of technology and careers in digital retouching that few would imagine are so important, because they are so well hidden.”
— Ashley Mears, Professor of Sociology, author of Pricing Beauty: The Making of a Fashion Model
Available with English, Spanish, and Hindi subtitles
(We are working on an audio description track for people with visual impairments)
Image credits: TOP: Photography by Sophie Kietzmann. Retouching by Liz Mooney. MIDDLE: Photography by Sophie Kietzmann. Retouching by Liz Mooney. BOTTOM: Photography by Robert Maxwell. Retouching by Laurent Le Moing.