On Ethical Retouching: Short Film Screening & Talk
As we navigate a new visual world where we must question the authenticity of what we are seeing, the practice of retouching images predates the dominance of AI. Commonly used as a tool to erase "flaws" and (in some cases) simulate perfection, the fashion and beauty industry relies on retouching for a finished look.
When it comes to the politics and perceptions of image enhancement, there's an emerging discourse on ethical or inclusive retouching. How do photographers address the moral aspects of retouching? Can a retouched image create more inclusivity? How transparent or honest does a retouched image need to be?
Join us as we close out our latest research theme, "Race and Image-making," with Matthew Raj Webb, who has spent years examining the labor and consumption of fashion and produced the film Retouch (2022, 18 mins).
Event Schedule:
11:00-11:30 am: Hosted via Zoom, FRD founder Kimberly Jenkins will screen the short film Retouch
11:30-11:50 am: Kimberly will be joined by Matthew Raj Webb to discuss his research and discoveries surrounding retouching
11:50-12:00 pm: Q&A from the audience
About our guest speaker:
Matthew Raj Webb (he/him) is a cultural anthropologist whose research focuses on the dynamics of making and consuming in the global fashion industry. He holds M.Phil and Ph.D. degrees, as well as a Graduate Certificate in Culture & Media, from New York University, and is the 2025-26 Polaire Weissman Curatorial Fellow at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Suggested resources, selected by Dr. Webb:
Webb, Matthew R. 2024. "Compositing the Body: Ethics of Expertise Among Professional Photographic Retouchers." Visual Anthropology Review, (Early View, e70002): 1-24.
Sadre-Orafai, Stephanie. 2011. "Fashion's Other Images: Casting Photographs and the Production of a Professional Vision." In Images in Time: Flashing Forward, Backward, in Front and Behind Photography in Fashion, Advertising and the Press, edited by Jo Turney, Michael A. Langkjær, and Æsa Sigurjónsdóttir. Bath: Wunderkammer Press.
Mears, Ashley. 2014. "Aesthetic Labor for the Sociologies of Work, Gender, and Beauty." Sociology Compass, 8(12): 1330-1343.
Benjamin, Ruha. 2019. Race After Technology. London: Polity
Roth, Lorna. 2009. "Looking at Shirley, the Ultimate Norm: Colour Balance, Image Technologies, and Cognitive Equity." Canadian Journal of Communication, 41(1): 111-136.
Shankar, Shalini. 2000. "Nothing Sells like Whiteness: Race, Ontology, and American Advertising." American Anthropologist, 122(1): 112-119.
Photo courtesy of Sophie Kietzmann and Liz Mooney at The PostCo, Brooklyn, 2021.