On the Warpath

I just saw a photograph of a friend of mine in a publication. She's a beautiful woman. Accomplished. Smart. Sexy.

But in this photograph, someone apparently thought she needed to be retouched within an inch of her life. And that makes my blood boil. It's as if the publishers thought she was almost good enough... but not quite. So they threw some Photoshop actions at her image and the result is a kind of homogenized, not fully "her" depiction.
Maybe it's just the result of a refinisher not knowing when to stop. Retouching should take out the blemishes, but not totally obliterate the soul of the photograph.
I have photographed quite a few women. I have retouched many of those images. But I firmly believe that the true beauty of each woman is similar to the beauty of the flowers I photograph ---- it is the slight variances from the "norm" that reveals the soul beauty of each living being.

I think I feel an new project coming on...