manipulation of photos - pictures that lie

I think it's amazing how technology has evolved over the years. Nowadays, photographers can manipulate their photos to where the edited picture is completely different from the original. Advertisers and fashion magazine editors, especially, use Photoshop to manipulate their pictures to "trick" the readers. In fashion magazines, celebrities and models are made to look slimmer, prettier, and more flawless than they are in real life. This has caused many girls in our society to have a desperate desire to be skinnier and beautiful. And I believe that it is somewhat a major factor why eating disorders are becoming more and more prevalent in our society today.

I chose to analyze the picture of Oprah on the cover of TV Guide (page 11 of website). On the cover photo, Oprah's body was obviously photoshopped because in real life, her body is full-figured and not as slim as it is depicted in the picture. As it mentions in the description, Oprah's head was actually spliced onto the body of Ann-Margret, an actress. The manipulation is harmful because first of all, Oprah's body does not look like how it is portrayed in the picture. The picture truly does 'lie'. Secondly, the overall photo was manipulated without Ann-Margret's permission. I would imagine this makes TV Guide lose a lot of credibilty. I am shocked TV Guide would even do this sort of thing without permission because they do have a high reputation as an entertainment magazine.