Artist Daniel Soares pasted Photoshop toolbar stickers on these H&M posters as a nice little reminder that not all is as it seems.

I can’t express how much I love this subtle commentary about the state of our current media.

And he stuck them specifically on swimsuit models, no less. Hallelujah.

I remember when I was a young girl—in my teens, maybe younger—I’d look at photos of models in swimsuits while doing leg-lifts and stomach crunches…partly wanting to do the moves that would make me look more like these “beauties” and partly punishing myself for not looking the way they did in the first place.

If I’d had someone tell me, “Honey, those are not real photos of real women, the images have been altered” and “It is a totally unfair standard to set for women to look like this,” maybe my perceptions would have been a bit different.

But I will say that I celebrate the fact that we now live in a world where this kind of information is out in the open.

Models don’t look much different on the glossy pages than they did twenty years ago.

However, there is much more information out there about how technology is at work full-time, tweaking these types of images to the standards of our culture’s media. See here, here, here, and here for examples from elephant journal alone.

I know the day will come when my daughter is comparing herself to swimsuit models. And I will be armed with a collection of articles on the Power of Photoshopping.

I will be there to tell her that these photos are not real.  And I will have proof.

Ten years into the future, (I’m hoping my daughter will last at least until age 14 before the body image stuff comes in, but I didn’t) I have a feeling the standards of beauty in the media won’t change all that much.

But the infinite possibilities of sharing information will work to our benefit in keeping nothing hidden.

Whether it be stretch marks.

Or the truth.

Source of article and photos, and for more information, click here.

For more, go to Daniel’s website.

Relephant:

> The Truth Behind Photoshop. {Video}

> Before & After Photoshop.

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Editor: Jenna Penielle Lyons

Photos: Upworthy