It doesn't seem like over a year ago when retouched photographs were considered a big negative, as people would change photos to make their story seem more true.
While it isn't as important when talking about celebrities and their photos, many are starting to take issue with the prevalent practice of changing the looks of people on the various covers of magazines.
When Andy Roddick saw his digitally edited photo of fake arms on the cover of Men's Fitness, he wrote on his blog, "If you can manage to stop laughing at the cover long enough, check out the article inside."
While photos of celebrities are requested to be touched up if they have some spots or wrinkles, it has now become so common that entire body shapes and bodies are being changed.
According to Jennifer Aniston, a photo of her on Redbook wasn't even of her body, as her head was put on another women's body.
There are some legitimate concerns, even in the celebrity area. For example, Kate Winslet tries to be an example and stands up for women who aren't pressured by the thin look, but when she had her body shape altered on the cover of GQ, it went against what she stood for, and in essence the picture told a false story of who she was and what she believed.
While this may sound somewhat petty, in reality, changing photos to reinforce a story is a lie, no matter what way you look at it.
People have been found doing this in war coverage that has made things look much worse than they really were, so that the story they wrote would carry more weight. That's a highly unethical practice that is becoming far too common.
It's one thing to do satirical changes that everyone knows is the point. It's another thing to change things to a photo that tells a story differently than it really is. Photos have that type of power, and we need to be much more honest in pictoral portrayals of the stories we are telling.
If this goes too far, the industry itself will become a joke and start to be considered a form of entertainment similar to tabloid headlines. People will start to believe that no photo can be trusted, and worse, isn't meant to be trusted.
We need higher integrity in this vital area of media and journalism.
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