I have been working as a retoucher for 32 years.
I would like to go back to the origin of the photographic retouch, the one that has existed since the creation of photography. The photographic retouchers were portrait painters who executed portraits for the aristocracy and the big bourgeoisie. We can remember then that in painting those who were important were the characteristics of the character, his defects but especially embellish the character.
Let us recall the photographs of our parents who were retouched with charcoal and white gouache to accentuate the volumes and contrasts that dandruff or glass plates could not reproduce.
The photographic retouching evolved along with the evolution of the films and the sensitivity of the films.
All that was then done with brushes with "gray film" and a vaccinostyle pen that was sharpened to scratch the defects. Moreover, we can sometimes see some vintage photography where we saw a small scratch to remove dark circles, portraits or even photo identities.
At the beginning of my career this job was valued by the artistic side, only one school in France taught this knowledge and methods of editing in general: as clipping, editing, coloring, etc ...
I remember the arrival of Apple on the photography market, in Laboratories. It was in the 1990s, an evolution in the montages that allowed to work more quickly on projects.
The photographic retouch with brushes was fully integrated in the evolution of the image, without asking the question among the public of the "faking" image, since it had its limits and that it remained natural then.
Then, little by little, on the market of the photography and especially of the beauty, the digital and especially Photoshop arrived with its facilities.
We know what becomes of the evolution of the film but especially the arrival of digital in the photography sector, with increasingly sensitive sensors that transmit details that the eye can not see in reality. And so always more defect that retouching strives to remedy for more realism.
I defend this trade which is mine and which always was a trade of the shade before it is revealed for the average people.
Let's think about the story of the image and what we would like to leave to our descendants.