I often get asked whether I edit my photographs. If you've ever printed images from 35-mm film in the dark room and swept a book over photo paper back and forth during exposure to dodge or burn, then you've edited yours, too. Or if you've ever tweaked the C, M, Y dial in color photography. Or...you get the idea.

Of course, I tweak my images, but I try to keep them naturalistic. What goes on in fashion-industry magazines is a Baudrillardian nightmare, but hasn't been of interest to me, and thus, hasn't been an issue.

Until now.

I used a closeup of my own eyes to illustrate an assigned concept that "untruth is not necessarily the falsification of the truth" (here, in reference to female aesthetics and makeup). And then I had to airbrush the image to meet the industry standard (somewhat), i.e., a lot more than I usually would edit a photo of anyone.

The concept works, but the level of untruth in this image of me surpasses my comfort zone.