Visual Crack-Cocaine? The Alternative World called Photoshop

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NO, THESE ARE NOT TWINS...WITH THE ONE ON RIGHT, PERFECT. It's "before and after" Photoshop images of the same woman. Greg Apodaca's web site offers a disturbing window into how Photoshop effects trick our brains into expecting a body perfection that does not exist in the real world. Call it, Photoshop world.

The “before and after’ Photoshopped images are more powerful when seen on Greg Apodaca’s web site.

Even when one knows that photo alterations are done in the media all the time, it is still a shock when you mouse-over Apodaca’s “after” Photoshop images, as he instructs.

I found that when the “before” doctoring image pops up, my visceral reaction is a weird feeling of revulsion. I suddenly see veins under skin surfaces, open pores on faces and slight skin color variations.

Yuck, is my sudden, instinctive reaction. Without conscious choice, I prefer the shiny smooth and very plastic inhuman body image. This is like visual crack-cocaine and is probably just as socially destructive.

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Visual Crack-Cocaine? The Alternative World called Photoshop

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