France Takes Aim at Airbrushing

If politicians in France get their way, photographs in magazines will be required by law to get the same treatment as food in a grocery store -- appropriate labeling. Read: if a photo's been airbrushed or retouched in any way, magazines will be required by law to mark them as such.

Needless to say, the move is getting a lot of flak within the magazine industry. According to WWD, Tony Chambers (the editor in chief of Wallpaper) said, “The camera has always lied and always will." He went on to add: "These things should always be taken with a pinch of salt. Fantasy and artistic interpretation are core ingredients in fashion, advertising and art photography.”

On the other hand, Katie Grand, whose launch issue of  "Love" boasted a larger-than-life Beth Ditto on the cover, seems in favor of trying to promote more realistic images of beauty to women.

The most interesting part of WWD's report was a parliamentary attache's take on which magazines so far have been for an against the idea -- tabloids (who love "real images") are for it, while magazines "like Elle" are against it.

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