Update: story updated here on December 28, 2009, to include a response from legal representatives for Ms. Moore, and W Magazine.
Click here for higher-rez image.
Anthony Citrano says,
Being an observer (and occasional shooter) of all things fashion, I
was just was looking at December’s “W” cover [above and left] with Demi
Moore.In the interview she says she’d rather be a “puma” than a “cougar” –
but apparently, the clumsy Photoshop artist decided she was looking
too strong in the cover shots – and awkwardly chopped off part of her
left thigh. Note how the upper part of her left thigh/hip is
basically missing (our right). Did she have some sort of weird car
accident that left a wedge of meat missing from it? The fabric even
magically floats above the missing thigh. Ha!Hard to believe that made it to the cover.
I feel about this the same way I did about the Ralph Lauren model. I
don’t buy (in the high fashion context, anyway) that there’s
necessarily too much “Photoshopping”, or too much of a drive toward
uber-skinny (which really seems to be a complex
thumbing-of-the-collective nose at western indulgence by the fashion
industry – another conversation entirely) but simply that it’s bad art
(in the sense such mistakes clearly interfere with the photographers
goal – let’s call it “aesthetus interruptus”).When I look at it I
can’t appreciate it because I feel like there’s a piece of dirt stuck
in my eyeball. A neon arrow pointing at the screwup. When I see
images like this I:1. feel bad for the photographer;
2. feel bad for
the subject;
3. feel like someone, somewhere, is a dumbass.Doesn’t
anyone look at these pictures before they go to press?Fashion designers, art directors, and yes, even we photographers are
often trying to be fantastical and aspirational, not necessarily
realistic — but when they make clumsy mistakes, completely miss the
mark, and end up making people look like mutants, I get to make fun.