Mind the gap: Photographer ‘enhances’ child’s school picture

An Australia mum was shocked to discover that her son’s school picture had been photoshopped to remove his “gappy grin” without her permission.

Ange Pickett revealed in a blog post that her eight-year-old son’s adorable smile had been photoshopped to replace his missing teeth. As the mum-of-two rightly points out “surely we have lost the plot when we start photo shopping an eight-year old’s gappy grin?”

Ange explained that her excitement in arriving home from work to discover that her boys’ school photographs had arrived, was quickly replace by bewilderment:

“As I looked at the photos of our eldest, I thought ‘I didn’t realise he still had teeth when the photos were taken’. In the world of a primary school Mum, and one whose term two started with both kids down with chicken pox in week one, photo day in term one seemed a lifetime ago.

But then I looked at the family photo and his class photo – and there he was. Gappy McGapster (as he currently calls himself) in all his glory.  At first, I thought they’d given us last year’s photo but then I looked closer. Nope. His mouth had been photo-shopped with what looked like last year’s baby teeth swapped in.”

The Aussie mum says she was “baffled” as to why anyone would do such a thing:

“Some people might have been angry at this point but I was just baffled. Why would anyone think to do this? At what point did missing teeth because something to be ‘fixed’?

This wasn’t touching up the light on a sunset or brightening up the group shot to see everyone better. This is a kid who didn’t lose a tooth until he was almost seven. He’s not embarrassed by the gaps and wonky teeth, he’s excited because lost tooth equals gold coin.

He doesn’t notice the crooked new teeth because he’s a kid and he is more interested in basketball, hockey, Netflix or finishing his collection of Marvel disks – and what he can eat next.”

Ange says that photoshopping children’s pictures sends out the worrying message that there is something wrong with the way they look:

But had I not said anything, who is to say it wouldn’t become the norm?  It was also important for our son to know we love him as he looks now. Accepting the photo-shopped photo says to him that we think there is something wrong with how he looks.

Our kids are growing up with so much technology that for them that perhaps we do have to remind them (and ourselves) of the importance of imperfect authentic photos and memories – gappy teeth and all!”