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Dad Mad After Daughter’s Scar Is Airbrushed from Photo
Murphy’s law says that if your child is going to get bumped, bruised, scratched, or the impulse to suddenly cut their own hair, it’s going to happen in that seven day period before school picture day.
Today’s technology takes care of most of that. With a swish of a digital paintbrush, that three-inch scratch disappears from little Tommy’s school photo. (Those sharply angled, ultra-short bangs your daughter cut, though? Those are just going to have to remain a really funny family story.)
But what happens when photographers take it upon themselves to do a little more digital work on your child, like removing a scar? Or a birthmark? Does that take things too far?
A Swedish dad is spitting mad after photographers did exactly that to his three-year-old daughter’s school pictures: They digitally removed a scar from her nose.
“It’s just not right,” said Per Engman, reports UPI.com, “It’s a sign that people refuse to accept the world as it is and all these problems associated with idealized beauty just seem wrong. They assume that parents don’t want scars, but I do. The scar is a part of who she is.”
Thord Larsson, the photographer in question, says that usually parents are happy when he smooths out a child’s bruises and such. “There are a lot of parents who are happy when marks which may have shown up from a scratch that morning are made to disappear, and the same goes for runny noses,” he said. “We just want things to be nice and cute.”
Runny noses are one thing — photos are keepsakes, after all. But like Engman said, a scar is more than a runny nose or a temporary scratch; it’s part of the landscape of a person’s face. What kind of message does it send to a child to erase it so that she looks “nice and cute?”
If your child had a facial scar, would you want it digitally erased?
Photo: chefranden, Flickr
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They Say - Popular Asthma Drugs Linked to Autism When Used During Pregnancy | Strollerderby commented on Dec 10 09 at 1:45 pmPlumbLucky commented on Nov 09 09 at 10:10 amThe scar on my nose was “altered out” in my first grade pictures…and it looks funny to me because I know it was there. Its there in my K and second grade pics. It just isn’t something my parents were annoyed about enough to saying to the photog company over.
Chips O'toole commented on Nov 09 09 at 10:31 amWhat about scars being added? That could make my kid cute and adorable (which he is) and a cool, dangerous rebel.
MsC commented on Nov 09 09 at 11:04 amMy kid took a header on the playground a few days before pictures, and had a horrible scab under her nose. I wouldn’t have minded *that* being photoshopped out. But something that’s a permanent feature of my kid’s face? That’s another story.
baconsmom commented on Nov 09 09 at 3:28 pmI want to see my child exactly as she was in that moment – self haircut, bruises, scrapes, scratches and scars included. Crazy hair included. There will be more than enough time for her to insist on “perfect” pictures later in life – I want a non-airbrushed, perfectly wonderful photo of MY little kid, not her idealized double.
Manjari commented on Nov 09 09 at 9:26 pmWhat baconsmom said!
Kristen commented on Dec 02 09 at 8:42 amWell, I used to work in school photography, and I know we offered two options: a standard option, which was the picture, exactly as it was taken, and a deluxe option, which included very basic retouching to even out skintone and minimize blemishes. It was an automatic program, and more than once that automatic program removed a scar or a mole that the parents didn’t intend to have removed.
Honestly, for us, it was usually not a huge deal to go back to the original photo and make a print — the issue came in when parents wanted certain imperfections removed and others left behind (i.e. remove that zit but leave that scar). That makes it a much more labor-intensive (and costly) process than normal.
I don’t have kids, so I really don’t have an opinion one way or another. Just thought I’d give some insight from the other side of the camera!
luckypenny commented on Dec 16 10 at 8:38 amMy sister has a round scar right in the middle of her forehead – a gift from the chicken pox when she was 7. In her grad pictures, the photographer had airbrushed it out. For the first few minutes when we saw the pics, we couldn’t figure out why they looked weird, until my sister pointed out her scar was missing! She simply contacted the photographer and told him she wanted the pictures reprinted, with the scar in. No need to call the media or get upset…
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