Photoshop is not a crime

Photoshop is not a crime, that is unless it is used on someone who did not wish to be altered. I feel that if both the model and the editor would like the model to appear more thin that she actually is in a particular photograph, then there is nothing wrong with an unnaturally thin women appearing in a magazine. Many people argue that the alteration of models in popular magazines is causing body image issues and anorexia in young teens, and while I don't deny the power of these images, I think that this problem could easily be solved if it was made clear somewhere on the image exactly how it was digitally enhanced. For example, if somewhere on the image below, there was some text that read, "model has been altered to appear more thin", I wouldn't see any issue in the public distribution of the picture. Now, I don't agree that this freakishly thin, abnormally symmetrical image is by any means "ideal" for women, however if this is how a brand wants to represent their style they should not be limited.

http://www.astropix.com/HTML/J_DIGIT/ETHICS.HTM

http://dslrfairytale.com/2012/01/19/photoshop-controversy-where-do-we-draw-the-line-on-beauty-manipulation/

http://www.afterellen.com/blog/dorothysnarker/yet-another-photoshop-controversey-begs-the-question-can-it-be-stopped

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2012/02/14/adeles-vogue-magazine-cover-causing-controversy/

http://www.huliq.com/7504/88930/demi-moore-photoshop-controversy-w-cover

First Composite

In-class Assignment

First Collage

This is the collage I did for the first collage assignment. I collected losing lottery tickets from the ground and scanned them to create the pattern in the background. The crane is a sketch I did and this is a photo I took of city hall.

Adventure

Last weekend I took a trip into center city because my friend needed some things from the Blick art materials store. I took this opportunity to explore and photograph both the Market Street area and the South Street area. The South Street area had a pleasant small neighborhood feel, with plenty of local businesses and interesting hole-in-the-wall style restaurants. Market Street felt much more like a large city, with tall buildings containing retail stores and chain restaurants. I was having trouble finding anything interesting to collect and scan until I stumbled upon some ripped up losing lottery tickets on the ground. Upon discovering these colorful records of people's failure, I began scouting them and ended up finding a solid handful of them throughout the city.

Larry Lessig is smart

Larry Lessig's comments on copyright laws and culture during his TEDTalks lecture completely changed my perspective on how things are shared on the internet. Until I saw this video I had assumed that some things were completely off limits for use in one's own creative projects. In high school my digital media teacher told us that we weren't allowed to use things in our art that we didn't have permission to use from the internet. This was the first time I had been made aware of copyright laws and I just assumed that this was normal. Lessig allowed to me to see this situation in a whole new light. The way he explained the significance of today's youth remixing things that they find on the internet was completely enlightening. I agree with him that recreating the media on the internet is one of the only ways the youth of today can contribute to culture and express themselves. Due to large corporation's ownership and control of everything that we enjoy and consume it is becoming extremely difficult for any sort of alteration to  the culture we live in by we the people. It is disgusting that the one way young people found to express themselves has been made a criminal activity. Copyright laws ought to be much more lenient so that the ideas and creativity of the youth can mesh and flourish.