Distortion of Reality- Photo Manipulation in Advertising

Manipulation in photography editing uses tactics to deceive the audience of a given photograph. Editing software programming,such as Adobe Photoshop,is used by artists to have the tools needed to exploit the image to develop specific messages. The resulting photograph is different from the original. The photograph is being digitally manipulated. However, most often the editing goes unnoticed by the targeted audience Editing in advertising results in contributing to gender stereotypes. Manipulative editing in photography reinforces gender stereotypes conveyed in American culture

The use of photo manipulation has been around just as long as the camera has been around. The use of photo manipulation creates the basis for a subjective opinion that reflects the targeted photograph. For example, in 2003, without permission from Apple Records and Paul McCartney, the United States poster distribution companies airbrushed the cigarette out of Paul McCartney’s hand in a promotional poster. It may have been felt by the distributors that the presence of the cigarette sent a negative message to younger fans, although the subject of the poster, McCartney himself, did not appear to have a problem with smoking in public. In this case, manipulative editing led to the poster distributors imposing their own moral code on viewers, rather than allowing the audience to decide what they thought of the original image on their own, without distorting its reality.

Photography use of manipulation towards a specific targeted audience creates a controversy amongst what is real and what is not real. Journalism is known for manipulation which questions what is existent and what is non existent. Also the questions ask may ask to what extent can journalism u...

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...s not a man she can win. One can automatically feel the urge to wear Old Spice thinking women prefer men with Old Spice deodorant.

Most photographs also pertain to creating gender stereotypes creating gender codes. Take for example a ad from AMI Clubwear. The photograph shows six distinct sexual women postured. Their breasts easily noticeable popping from the pink mini skirted with their high hilled matching pink heels. The photograph conveys that in order to look and feel sexy is to wear what they wear. Which is barely anything. However, one also can notice that each thin and legs shaved. The advertisement creates a unreal women posture luring to catch both a man’s and women’s attention. The body posture shows the incredible unrealistic fits of becoming beautiful. The cityscape in the foreground give the notion that to be beautiful you must come from the city.