The pic was Photoshopped to make her look worse

Mar 2, 2015 13:08 GMT  ·  By
Photo of Cindy Crawford purporting to be "no Photoshop" had been altered to make her look worse, says attorney
   Photo of Cindy Crawford purporting to be "no Photoshop" had been altered to make her look worse, says attorney

A couple of weeks ago, the Internet and the media rejoiced when a photo purporting to be an outtake from a Marie Claire shoot, before Photoshop, with Cindy Crawford leaked online. The photo showed the 49-year-old former supermodel with the body of a woman of her age - a woman in excellent shape, but a mature woman nonetheless.

The leaked pic made the rounds online with the speed of light and reopened the debate on the need for more truthful representations in the media of age and beauty. It also made celebrity bloggers shower Cindy with praise, even though she’d done nothing by means of deserving it, since she didn’t even acknowledge the existence of the photo.

Cindy is not happy

She may have been showered with praise, but Cindy didn’t appreciate the boost in attention at all. In fact, she’s anything but happy about the leak.

It’s not just the fact that the photo is unflattering that bothered the former supermodel, or that it showed a side of her the world had not seen before. As an attorney for the model tells TMZ in a cease and desist letter, the photo shared as a “no-Photoshop” picture is actually full of it.

So, it’s not an accurate representation of reality. Because it’s a fake, it’s injurious to Cindy’s image and brand.

The attorney is saying that all those who posted the photo as if it were legitimate must take it down and issue an apology immediately, or face the consequences. The letter also claims that the original was stolen and then altered to make Cindy look worse.

“The lawyer included a statement from the famous photog, who says he took the pic for Marie Claire Mexico and someone stole it from him and Photoshopped it,” TMZ says.

The lawyer’s message is already reaching all the right people, because many media outlets have already taken the photo down.

The Instagram image available below was posted to husband Rande Gerber’s feed right after the leak: it’s meant to show that she is still at the top of her game, and that there is no truth to the alleged no-Photoshop picture.

Still, we need to talk about retouching

Even assuming the photo of Cindy was fake, this doesn’t take away the validity of the conversation had around it: media needs more accurate representations of the female body.

This debate has been underway for several years now, but very little progress has been recorded. Even the photos of celebrities purporting to be of the “no makeup” or “no Photoshop” variety are misleading, because they usually include some makeup and some retouching.

Experts warn that being exposed to so many images of “perfection” (male and female) in all media, from music videos to movies and magazines / ads, children and teenagers come up in life with unrealistic expectations, both of themselves and of the people around them.

Self-esteem issues are most common in girls, but they’re not exclusive to them. Including disclaimers that some photos have been retouched could be a way to prevent that.  

She got flowers and I got her. Happy Valentines Day @cindycrawford A photo posted by Rande Gerber (@randegerber) on Feb 14, 2015 at 6:00pm PST