Last but not least: The beautiful Esther Honey

In an experiment, journalist Esther Honig asked photo editors from more than 25 countries to «enhance» her appearance using Photoshop. The results couldn’t be more different.

Editorial - June 30, 2014

Photoshop has become a symbol of society's unattainable beauty ideals in the United States, according to Esther Honig. The journalist was concerned with the question of whether there are also global standards when it comes to retouching a female face to "perfection". As an experiment, soe sent an unedited portrait of herself to 40 graphic artists from over 25 countries on freelancer platforms such as Fiverr.com. Mission: "Make me beautiful".

The image editors are partly professionals, but also amateurs (which some of the returned images cannot hide). The results range from hair-raising to quite acceptable and show: The aspired ideals of beauty differ greatly. A Moroccan graphic artist even gave her a veil. The ideas of what is beautiful also seem to diverge greatly in other respects. Nevertheless, it seems a bit adventurous to draw conclusions about the taste of entire countries or cultures from the results of individual image editors. And: It was actually most beautiful before these Photshop heroes lent a hand. (hae)

Greece: