"The smiling, ethnically diverse family featured on the cover of Toronto's latest edition of its summer Fun Guide was digitally altered to make the photo more 'inclusive,' which city officials say is in keeping with a policy to reflect diversity.
A spokesman for the department that publishes the guide listing recreation activities confirmed the publication was doctored to insert the face of a different father.
'He superimposed the African-Canadian person onto the family cluster in the original photo. It was two photographs and one head was superimposed over the original family photo,' said John Gosgnach, communications director for the social development division.
'The goal was to depict the diversity of Toronto and its residents.'"
I call false advertising anyway. According to census data at least as referred to in Wikipedia, which should be OK for the purposes of this post, more than half of Toronto is white, and only 46% is made up of visible minorities. Notably absent in the advertisement are any Oriental people, who make up the greatest part of the minority slice of pie.
For a cover shot, they didn't seem to put much thought or effort into it, sadly. :-(
That's interesting. This was first "exposed" by some media guy who ran the image through Tin Eye and found the original source images. Possibly even more interesting is the fact that both source images are from stock agencies, and none of the people depicted are residents of Toronto... This, of course, is completely normal for these sorts of publications now, but it makes me miss the old days when people like me would actually be called up to provide content for these guides in our own local areas...
That's interesting. This was first "exposed" by some media guy who ran the image through Tin Eye and found the original source images. Possibly even more interesting is the fact that both source images are from stock agencies, and none of the people depicted are residents of Toronto... This, of course, is completely normal for these sorts of publications now, but it makes me miss the old days when people like me would actually be called up to provide content for these guides in our own local areas...
R.
Yeah, collaboration of the scale seen today is a two edged sword. On the one hand, it means that anybody can be involved in the crafting of something. On the other hand, this means that you are now competing against the whole world's body of work when you try to get your work into a publication. I think the idea is really a nice embodiment of the impacts of a true open market. Why NOT outsource for a stock photo for $100 instead of hiring a local photog?
Not to mention that without the bright background, which communicates that the top of the son's head was washed out, the child next to "New Dad" winds up looking deformed.
The Universtity of Wisconsin did this same thing a few years back. They photoshopped some black people into a crowd of white people at a sporting event to make the student body look more diverse on the cover of a Student Handbook. In the end it kind of backfired. Largely in part to it becoming public knowlege. That photoshop job was done a bit better than one shown here however. Probably would have gone unnoticed had someone not spoke out.
The Universtity of Wisconsin did this same thing a few years back. They photoshopped some black people into a crowd of white people at a sporting event to make the student body look more diverse on the cover of a Student Handbook.
There's obviously a market for a Photoshop 'Black People' Brush. Or at the very least an 'insert black man' action.
Obviously... The PS work is too professional compared to the selected hack.
They should have included a slice of the other several hundred ethnic origins no doubt present in the city... The world has gone PC mad, it's just sad :shrug:
Obviously... The PS work is too professional compared to the selected hack.
They should have included a slice of the other several hundred ethnic origins no doubt present in the city... The world has gone PC mad, it's just sad :shrug:
Now, through their efforts to be PC, they're excluding many other minorities. I find PC people comical. :-D
