Put the phone down and stop editing photographs
Altering images is causing problems for young people struggling with feelings of inadequacy, writes Stephen Jardine
Forget Z, Y and all the different generations. There is a very simple way to define the ages and that is to ask the question, do you edit your photos? “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing,” admitted the Princess of Wales after releasing a family image for Mother’s Day to try to dampen speculation about her health. Instead, the lack of initial transparency about alterations poured petrol on a bin fire.
Her words tried to make it seem a natural thing to do. As if she was saying “like many amateur motorists, I do occasionally experiment with braking”. What she forgot was that everyone is an amateur photographer these days, at least anyone with a smartphone and that is more than 80 per cent of the population.
Whatever Catherine’s motivation, her actions betrayed the fact that she is a classic Millennial, interested less in editing and more in ‘the look’. In the bars and cafes most beloved by the Instagram generation you can spot them, endlessly taking selfies in the search for one image they deem acceptable. Once found, they then set to work with the editing tools, removing blemishes, deepening tans and squeezing hips. Only then is it fit to be shared with the world.
How times change. Back in the day you paid for the camera, then the film, then the developing and you only got one chance to capture the moment. My family photos are full of people with eyes closed, standing half in shot with feet often below frame. How we would have loved the chance to remove the giant wart from a relative’s chin or extend the fabric over a beer belly protruding from under a T-shirt.
However, the technology wasn’t available so everyone just had to put up with what they had. Reality. That’s not to say people didn’t care about how they looked. In most family photos from the past, folk are dressed much more smartly than they would be today. But a photograph was all about capturing a moment, not an aspiration.
What the royal photo editing saga has demonstrated is that even rich, beautiful and privileged people still want more. Whether it be longer hair, brighter smiles or thinner fingers, the search for perfection is endless. So why not just be happy with what we’ve got?
Last month, schools in New York City launched a lawsuit against the tech giants that run social media sites including Instagram and Tiktok, blaming their “addictive and dangerous” platforms for a crisis in children’s mental health. Here, we have the same issues with young people struggling with low self-esteem and feelings of inadequacy in the face of manipulated images on social media that provide a totally fake and unrealistic expectation of body shape and appearance.
Normalising image manipulation is part of the problem.
The fashion magazines that do nothing but edit and enhance images should take a long, hard look at themselves but we don’t have to play their game.
The image we take of ourselves is a true representation of how we were at that moment in time and we need to live with that and learn to love it.
As the Princess of Wales has discovered, the camera never lies. And that’s not something to be ashamed about.