It seems Washingtonian magazine decided to try and offset all those high crime statistics by giving people reasons to love living in Washington DC for a change. And what better way than to bring them a bit of The Sexy? A shirtless, bronzed Barack Obama graces the cover with the headline “Reason #2 Our New Neighbor Is Hot”. The problem? The Sexy is also The Shopped. For starters, they changed the color of his shorts (presumably to make them stand out against the solid black background they decided to go with), and then they also decided that Obama was just not tan enough so, hey, let’s give him a bit o’ that tanorexic sheen, shall we?
I have many beefs with this photo: First and foremost, the Washingtonian made a poor photo selection for this cover. The original photo of Obama was taken at quite a distance, and they blew it up beyond the point one should blow up an image for a cover. (I think part of the reason they threw so much digital bronzer on Obama’s skin was to minimize the pixelization that occurred from blowing the image up so much.) You mean to tell me the folks over at Washingtonian couldn’t find any other crazysexycool photos of our President that were of higher quality and thus better suited for their cover? Phuleeze. And really who made the decision to change the color of his shorts to a shade that he has never been documented wearing? Why don’t you just scream from the rooftops, “HEY! WE SHOPPED THIS!”
Thanks to Kyle for the heads up!
Related articles…
Media Literacy 101: The Ethics of Photoshopping a Shirtless Obama [Huffington Post]
Obama Magazine Cover Stirs Debate [CBS 5]
Mag gets flak for altered pic of Obama’s buff bod [Yahoo! News]
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