Solve Sundsbo

His bizarre, cleverly manipulated images have made him fashion photography’s hottest new star

By Lena Corner

From http://www.independent.co.uk

When fashion photographer Solve Sundsbo started his career, for a while it seemed as though he would get no further than the dole queue. “People would say to me, ‘I’m not sure I can hire you, I’m not sure what you’re doing. What is your style?’ I was mortified and thought I was never going to make a living as a photographer.”

The problem was that curiosity had got the better of the young Norwegian and he couldn’t help but embrace every photographic technique going. His work incorporated everything from X-rays and 3-D scanning to hi-tech manipulation and laborious hand-painted retouching. “If I’ve got a style,” says Sundsbo, “it’s that I’ve got no style.”

Undeterred, and still in his early twenties, Sundsbo hopped on a plane to London to set about seeking his fortune. And four months into a photography course at the London College of Printing he got a call from Nick Knight, who was looking for an assistant. For a young fashion photographer, there are few better places to start. Knight is not only regarded as one of the world’s most visionary fashion photographers, but his Show Studio gallery continually pushes the boundaries of artistic possibilities. “It was hard – almost medieval in the way that you devote yourself utterly to your teacher for nearly four years. But you get that same devotion back from your teacher.”

 

Watchdog blasts digital distortion

from the Winnipeg Free Press, Canada

By: Misty Harris

A Canadian media watchdog is calling for restricted use of Photoshop and other methods of digital enhancement in magazines, both in editorial photographs and in advertising.

Media Action’s criticism of the widespread practice of retouching photos — which can include the removal of everything from fat to frown lines on models and celebrities — comes as the United Kingdom’s Periodical Publishers Association launches its own inquiry into industry “Photoshopping.” The association announced plans this week to create a working group with the British Fashion Council and top U.K. magazine editors to discuss a possible ethics code governing the use of computer technology to adjust body appearance.

Shari Graydon, a director at Ontario-based Media Action, says changes to publishing practices regarding such digital wizardry are long overdue.

“Readers have a right to expect authenticity from the photos magazines disseminate,” says Graydon. “If we can’t trust that the images we’re looking at reflect reality, why should we credit the words that appear alongside them with any greater truth?”