Dangin

Dangin seems to me, to be more an artist than just someone who retouches photos. I always thought of retouching to be a more manufactured, cookie-cutter process, with shoppers simply lopping off wrinkles and blemishes left and right: in comes inherently flawed picture of human being, out goes unrealistic ideal of beauty to which reality can never measure up.
In many cases that’s not far from the truth, and that possibly is part of what makes Dangin’s work so great. For example, in one instance Dangin points out the crookedness in one model’s teeth, yet choses to leave them unaltered. Dangin states: “I don’t want her to become someone else”. I found this piece of commentary to be refreshing considering the context.
The article also delves a bit into the social and ethical issues that go with altering photographs, which I feel is necessary. It mentions Andy Roddick and Kate Winslet voicing their discontent over changes they felt were too drastic. Dangin remains relatively unconcerned with celebs gripes and rather points out the irony in their requests: ““The people who complain about retouching are the first to say, ‘Get this thing off my arm’”. After reading the article, I can’t help but want to see some of his work, though the fact of the matter is I probably already have.