When The Fountain of Youth Ran Dry

My mother is a dermatologist, a cosmetic dermatologist, and I have watched her practice grow as her proficiency with utilizing images increases. Her PowerPoint presentations are proliferated with before and after pictures of her patients. Images have become so important in her practice that she has even hired a professional photographer to take pictures of her clients. Now, my mom does not alter the photographs on Photoshop or anything like that because she lacks the technical know-how, but nevertheless these images, like intentionally altered photographs, feed their viewer a hegemonic reading by playing upon the viewer’s belief in photographic truth. And nothing strengthens the viewer’s belief in photographic truth like science. Because a doctor and some scientific-looking before and after pictures back up these new skin treatments few people question them. In fact, you don’t even need to be a doctor to back up a product in an advertisement; all you really need is a white lab coat.

Here are two brief examples of how science and images help to reinforce one another. First, I remember when I was little attending one of my mother’s PowerPoint presentations. A representative from a drug company was there pushing a new product, and this drug representative came equipped with a special kind of camera that could expose the accumulative amount of sun damage on your face. I was only like twelve around the time, but when the photo was instantly developed (like a Polaroid) my face was littered with a multitude of dark leathery freckles! I can only image what the older women must have looked like in this camera’s lens. After seeing their horrendously wrinkly images, they probably would have bought anything that lady was selling.

My second example is a few weeks ago I saw Clinique advertising in the quad. They offered passersby free samples and consultations. All of the assistants were wearing white lab coats, and yet they appeared to be undergraduate students. Let’s just say, I’m pretty sure that none of them have their Ph.D. Science and advertising are a dangerous combination that the consumer should be wary of; in the case of cosmetic dermatology, we need to reconcile ourselves with the fact that the fountain of youth is unobtainable.