Journalist has her portrait photoshopped in 25 countries. We asked for her opinion on the Romanian version

Newsroom 26/06/2014 | 18:06

Esther Honig, journalist, blogger and freelancing reporter for KCUR , allowed her picture-portrait to be photoshopped by designers from 25 different countries, such as Ukraine, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Germany and others. Her project, aptly called “Before and After”, was designed as a way to compare the differing views on beauty from across the world. Romania is included among the nations that submitted a photoshopped version of the original picture, with some interesting modifications.

She used the freelancing platform Fiverr to contact individuals with Photoshop experience from 25 different countries.

“I decided to use this platform, and others like it, to conduct my very own international experiment. My objective since the beginning has been to examine how the standards of unobtainable beauty vary across cultures on a global level”, she explained to Eonline.

The journalist contacted freelancers from all over the world and sent her picture along with the following message:

“Hi my name is Esther Honig and I would like you to enhance this image using Photoshop. I trust you to take whatever steps you see necessary. Make me look beautiful.”

Esther's original picture.
Esther’s original picture.

She explains that experience and skill did not necessarily factor in her selection process, the freelancers that responded vary from amateurs to industry professionals. Paid options usually offer the best photo editing services available , since paid products often respond to feature requests

The results are at the very least intriguing, with some pictures showing a completely different person. Not a feature was left untouched: sometimes the eyes were larger, other times there was virtual make-up applied, and in some instances the hairline was changed completely.

“Seeing some jobs for the first time made me shriek… Other times images, like the one from Morocco, took my breath away because they were far more insightful than I could have expected,” Honig said, quoted by Buzzfeed.

Interestingly enough, the Romanian freelance artist that Esther contacted decided to change very little about the original picture. Dark circles under the eyes were removed and the skin tone was evened, but other than that the picture is not that different from the original.

romania

When asked by BR what she thinks of the Romanian version of her image, Esther told us:

“I’m not sure what I think about my image from Romania, it really doesn’t offer as much of stark contrast as some of the other images I received. I’d be more interested to know what some Romanians consider to be standard beauty ideals and if this image reflects that in any way”.

“Photoshop allows us to achieve our unobtainable standards of beauty, but when we compare those standards on a global scale, achieving the ideal remains all the more illusive”, Esther Honig tells us on her website when presenting the results of her research.

View the gallery of submitted pictures below and leave a comment to reply to Esther’s query: is the Romanian example picture an indication that natural beauty is of greater value than artificial enhancements in Romanian culture?

Foto source: estherhonig.com

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