Snapchat Dysmorphia Part I--Why Don't I Look Like My Selfies?

The smart phone era has ushered in an age where everyone carries a camera in our pockets. So why aren't we happy with the pictures we take? On part one of this two part discussion, we talk with photographer Blaise Douros and plastic surgeon Scott McCusker on the ways camera lenses filter our perceptions of reality and consequently the rise in plastic surgery.

Blaise Douros: "We have embraced a device that inherently distorts our images, the images that we see of ourselves every day... There are a lot of things that you can do in Photoshop that have absolutely no bearing on what reality is."

Scott McCusker: "... we are constantly bombarded with unrealistic images. Our mind's eye gets broken by it. And people's sense of what they look like is being distorted because they only see themselves in altered Snapchat images. People's ability to know what an appropriate body looks like is destroyed. It's a really big problem, and not one that I can fix by any means. This is one that really is way bigger than any of us, but I think that awareness of it is important."

Mastering Medical Photography of the Head and Neck 

Audio Engineered by: Blaise Douros