Size & Perspective
The big kerfuffle about the modeling contest photos, whose size 12 contestant got scorned, is all over the internet. A colleague of mine from Austria who insists he is allergic to anything over size 6 emailed me to let me know as of this picture of the gold bathing suit, now a size 12, Miss Jen Hunter, was now qualified as permissible for dating. When I realized what the fuss was all about I decided to weigh in my two Euros.
There is an important message here for microstock (and all photographers). While “Make Me A Supermodel winner Jen Hunter looks as if this outfit was custom-made for her”, the costume, styling, posing and lighting make all the difference. These photographs are not equal and they present a very misleading idea about the ability of even those in the industry to wrap their head around the realities of photography.
Famous photographers like the ones taking pictures of Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Hedy Lamarr, and other MGM “hotties” of the 20’s, 30’s and 1940’s used lights, texture, lenses and the natural allure of the subject in extensive photo sessions. But today fabric’s don’t drape like that, standards and customs of dress have changes, and some candor of the gender and sexuality avenues have entered the fray. And the public has been conditioned to expect unnatural thinness and idealism in their advertising.
Today’s commercial advertising is braced behind hours of digital airbrushing, with account executives dictating how big the eyes should be, and art directors restyling the lip color, weeks or days after the shoot. For this reason, the actual wire hanger wearing the clothes, the model, remains almost unimportant except as a building block. The two dimensional aspect governs almost every prism of the ad campaign.
Unfortunately for the purposes of print modeling, both the judges and the public are correct. The much thinner girl, Miss Berglund, has enormous modeling potential for commercial fashion and beauty photography because commercial modeling caters to the smaller frame from perspectives of talent, industry, and practice. Hence when Miss Hunter gets put in a flattering pose, behind a red backdrop creating a rosy glow, with a brilliant smile on, she steals the show. See how much production can do?
Miss Berglund is cast in comparison cut off at the legs, never a really flattering pose for a woman. The backdrop is a dingy grey industrial rooftop (with a gold lame bathing suit?) and Miss  Berglund’s hair looks almost unstyled, and she has puffy bags under her eyes that do not match the cosmetic treatment in Jen Hunter’s shot. Berglund is shot like a one-touch Polaroid, Hunter looks like red-carpet attention has been lavished on her.
Using the images for comparison, I tried to equalize them. Review the above image. Even at the bitmap layer the Berglund image was not even equal quality to the Hunter. Allowing for the unmade up face and the stylish leopard shoes on Jen Hunter, the photo layouts are not even close to equal. The lighting on Hunter’s red suit is not the same lighting as Berglund’s suit receives. The color is off in the one (Berglund’s) image file. The color in Hunter’s photo is saturated.
Side to side, the irregular and uneven image values should remind photographers not to leave one stone unturned preparing models and backdrops for the big picture. Berglund doubtless has many amazing poses in her reportoire, none of which are shown here, while Hunter shows her best side to the camera. Promising a full fledged modeling career to Hunter, minus the celebrity stunt, is unfair. Many women Hunter’s size would be turned away from go-see’s unseen.
While Hunter is indeed attractive in this photo, it is more likely Miss Berglund who would fit into 30 random bathing suits with one hour to shoot for each. Berglund can be posed into flattering poses, while if hunter were the model, bathing suits leave very little to be twisted around. Certain kinds of commercial photography, like bathing suits, remain likely for very small/thin models or Brazilian bombshells like Gisele. Gimcracking the photography to whet the anger of readers/viewers is false.
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