Although the year is still young, 2010 has had a whirlwind of bizarre celebrity orders and requests. Rihanna told everyone to "go hard," eco-friendly Brad Pitt inspired many to go green and Jessica Simpson demanded that celebrities go au naturel.
Marie Claire magazine's May issue features a barefaced Simpson on the front cover. The star refused to be touched up by standard airbrush methods. Next to her fresh picture, the cover says "The Real Jessica... No makeup, No retouching, No regrets."
"It's about time celebrities as well as regular people like me start realizing that pretty does not mean perfect," said Mary Anne Cates, freshman in apparel merchandising and member of the Auburn University Modeling Board. "The false image celebrities portray that regular people try to reach is physically impossible."
Kristina Emerson, junior in public relations and another member of the AU Modeling Board, is more open to the original idea of enhancing one's beauty.
At first, Emerson was unsure about the outcome of her photos after having been airbrushed.
"I thought it was a little weird because I wasn't used to it, and I didn't want it to look like I was being fake," Emerson said. "As long as it is not too much, I think airbrushing is simply there to only enhance and improve the quality of a photo."
Simpson's feature story is not the first time major publications have embraced the trend of natural beauty.
In 2009, an issue of French Elle international celebrities sans makeup or airbrush enhancements.
According to thefrisky.com, the females are portrayed sans fards, which is a French idiom that literally means "without rouge."
It also implies "openness."
Shortly after, an Australian magazine followed French Elle's footsteps. As part of the "Heart Your Body" campaign, Dolly magazine did away with the use of airbrushing photos and featured "Twilight" star Kristen Stewart's unedited photo on the cover.
Heather Hodges, junior in communication and AU Modeling Board president, also supports the revolutionary outlook many celebrities are promoting.
Hodges said she'd rather see the true beauty of the person rather than the enhanced version.
"For years, photographers have told people to not put so much makeup on," said Jim Chesnutt, owner of Chesnutt Photography in Auburn. "I do all-natural photographs, people in weddings, so I know that you can put on so much makeup that you can look pretty bad."
Chesnutt said he thinks a photograph of a woman is truly beautiful when she doesn't have to change anything about herself.
Miss Universe 2004 and model Jennifer Hawkins recently posed in the nude for the cover of February's Australian Marie Claire. The magazine used an untouched and airbrush-free picture of Hawkins on the cover to make a positive statement about body image.
"People too often put too much stock in their appearances based on the latest fashion model or celebrity," said Tucker Stokes, owner and photographer of Stokes Portrait and Wedding Design. "The entire goal of photography is to capture what's there, not to create what isn't. A true photographer will try to find the true beauty in any subject, not add to it artificially."
In the upcoming May issue of Harper's Bazaar, Kim Kardashian, Joy Bryant and Amanda de Cadenet all posed unairbrushed for a story on body image. This wasn't the first time Kardashian has snubbed Photoshop editing; she also went unaltered in a bikini on the cover of Life & Style last year.
"I think them (celebrities) being natural makes them seem more real," Hodges said. "That's what most people are truly drawn to and makes them realize they are just normal people like us."
Emily Blunt appeared on the cover of February's Los Angeles Times Magazine, where she shared personal accounts of how pictures from another photo shoot had been unnecessarily altered. Blunt told the magazine she had asked the airbrusher to not change her face and make her thinner; she thought it was unfair to represent an image of herself if it wasn't true.
"I've never seen a smiling face that wasn't beautiful," Hodges said. "Also, I like this quote by Kahlil Gibran: 'Beauty is not in the face, but it's a light in the heart.'
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