Legendary photographer Mario Testino shot women without retouching, and it’s completely gorgeous
For more than 10 years, Dove’s Real Beauty Campaign has been way ahead of the curve. Before the mainstream push to promote inclusivity, body confidence and self-love across the board, Dove was all about showcasing the beautiful, real women who love their products, instead of a random model. This year, the campaign’s all about beauty that defies age, shape, and nationality (love it!). And what’s more, the 32 lucky ladies were given the ultimate treat: having their photos taken by the legendary Mario Testino.
For those of you unfamiliar with Mr. Testino, he’s the world renowned glossies photog known for his work with the model elites like Gisele Bündchen, Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid, Kate Moss… You get the picture. And as part of the project, you guessed it: There was absolutely no retouching allowed. Zilch!
“It’s about making them look good, making them shine, making them feel empowered,” Testino told Vogue about photographing his subjects.
"For me, it's been great to do the [Dove campaign], because it was an exercise for myself: What happens if I don't change anything? If I don’t retouch, is the result the same? I want that to influence the pictures that I do for magazines, rather than the other way around, because, in a way, it makes us in our business kinder and gentler and less hard on each other."
As you can guess, the results were breathtaking. No Photoshop necessary. Because when you’ve got strong, beautiful women working with this inspiring photographer, you just can’t lose.
“Especially in the times that we are living now, where exclusion is becoming a worry. This company is working on inclusion,” Testino said when asked why he wanted to shoot this campaign. “When you retouch skin to perfection, you are excluding a lot of people who could never get to that. By allowing all those things to exist, you’re opening that door to make a lot of people believe they are beautiful as well.”
“And the sad thing is that when you don’t consider yourself beautiful, it reflects in all your actions and all your attitudes: in your security to your work, your security toward your partner, your security to your children.”
Preach it, Mario! #RealBeauty
