Dove “Real Women” Ads Retouched?

The New Yorker has an interesting profile of Pascal Dangin- “the premier retoucher of fashion photographs”. Dangin is a talented artist creating the photo manipulation supply to meet the demands of the smoke and mirrors fashion and beauty industries. Though he discusses anatomy with a clinician’s detachment, even he is aware that the retouched images create unattainable goals for the readers.

That photos are retouched for print is common knowledge. But it was the revelation that Dangin’s services were brought in for the Dove “Campaign for Real Beauty” ad campaign that caught my eye:

To avoid such complaints, retouchers tend to practice semi-clandestinely. “It is known that everybody does it, but they protest,” Dangin said recently. “The people who complain about retouching are the first to say, ‘Get this thing off my arm.’ ” I mentioned the Dove ad campaign that proudly featured lumpier-than-usual “real women” in their undergarments. It turned out that it was a Dangin job. “Do you know how much retouching was on that?” he asked. “But it was great to do, a challenge, to keep everyone’s skin and faces showing the mileage but not looking unattractive.”

Dangin has now stated that he was taken out of context. The “‘real women’ in their undergarments” ad that the reporter mentions was launched in 2005 with photographs taken by Ian Rankin. Dangin claims he had nothing to do with that campaign. He was involved with the 2007 “Pro-Age” ads photographed by Annie Leibovitz and featuring women in their 50s, 60s and 70s.

“As directed by Ms. Leibovitz and Ogilvy & Mather, [the Pro-Age] photographs were retouched for dust and color correction,” he said. “I did not mean to suggest that the women’s shape, size, facial features or age were retouched. Consistent with the intent of Dove, Ogilvy & Mather, Annie Leibovitz, and my own guiding philosophy, the integrity of the photographs and the natural and unique beauty of the women were maintained.”

From Dangin’s statement in the New Yorker article, it didn’t sound like he was claiming to have whittled waists or given breast enlargements to the models. It seemed like he was mostly referring to clearing up skin problems (many of which could be caused by lighting) or other similar and minor imperfections. That isn’t to say that such a behavior is right in a campaign that claims to be “real” but I think everyone is media savvy enough to know at this point that photos rarely make it to print without being retouched. Most images of a person in a magazine should come with small print that states “Actual person bears little resemblance to person depicted”.

With that in mind, Dangin and Unilever’s could have made statements that the photo editing was minor and did nothing to alter the body shapes (or the age) of the women and it would have sufficed. But Annie Leibovitz (fresh off the Miley Cyrus Vanity Fair photo controversy) kind of took her rebuttal to a weird place:

In her statement, provided by Unilever, Ms. Leibovitz said, “Let’s be perfectly clear — Pascal does all kinds of work — but he is primarily a printer — and only does retouching when asked to. The idea for Dove was very clear at the beginning. There was to be NO retouching, and there was not.”

Leibovitz stands alone in saying that there was absolutely no retouching on the photos. And her claim that Dangin is “primarily a printer” seems to be a gross oversimplification based on the New Yorker profile- in which Leibovitz herself sings the highest praises for his skills.

As renowned as Dangin is in fashion and photographic circles, his work, with its whiff of black magic, is not often discussed outside of them. (He is not, for instance, credited in magazines.) His hold on the business derives from the pervasive belief that he possesses some ineffable, savantlike sympathy for the soul of a picture, along with the vision (and maybe the ego) of its creator. “Just by the fact that he works with you, you think you’re good,” Leibovitz said. “If he works with you a lot, maybe you think, Well, maybe I’m worthwhile.”

While he did claim to be taken out of context, Dangin was the most honest person about the whole ordeal. Which is ironic considering he is the person that makes his entire living off of creating deceptions.

Tags: Annie Leibovitz, Dove Pro-Age, Campaign for Real Beauty, Pascal Dangin