Fourteenth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

Focusing on the visual media practices of professional photographic retouchers working in the New York fashion and beauty industry, this paper explores how the body is being reproduced within a modern fashion system. I foreground retouchers’ distinctive ethical imaginaries and attempts to construct “inclusive” visual objectifications. Such imperatives are most explicit in techniques they refer to as “compositing” (verb), a term which references selective, compositional practices that combine multiple socioculturally-marked visual elements. This study points to a parallax of ethical intentions marked by competing media ideologies: while public critics seek to decrease prevalence of retouching, retouchers instead argue that more, expertly engineered and thoughtfully engaged retouching practices can generate a more ethical and inclusive media world.