Postmodernism (Baudrillard)

It is surprising, in today’s culture, to encounter an advertisement or magazine cover that does not feature a beautiful human with impeccable features: flawless skin, perfect facial symmetry, a pure white smile.  We hold these images to be the ‘real’ faces of models and celebrities that we admire and obsess over in various forms of media, whether it is the web, video, or print. However, is this really the ‘reality’ of these stars?

According to postmodernist theories, the phenomenon of Photoshop and digital editing of images are both examples of the collapse of the aura of the original. In his article, “The Precession of Simulacra,” Jean Baudrillard writes that, “Abstraction today is no longer that of the map, the double, the mirror or the concept. Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being or a substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal” (409). Photographs of famous celebrities are, in a way, a copy of the “original” image, and when these copies are altered, it creates a simulacrum. 

When regarding the “original” and “reality,” Baudrillard adds that, “It no longer has to be rational, since it is no longer measured against some ideal or negative instance. It is nothing more than operational. In fact, since it is no longer enveloped by an imaginary, it is no longer real at all;” rather; he states, “It is a hyperreal, the product of an irradiating synthesis of combinatory models in a hyperspace without atmosphere” (410). In this case, airbrushed and altered photographs that are advertised to the public can qualify as “hyperreal.” Though people may accept these pictures as “reality,” they are not – by definition – real, since they are frequently too skewed to be considered rational or natural. And yet, these photographs are just as “real” to us as the original photos, and we still consider these photos to be the “real” celebrity.