Live Cosmetic Surgery

Roughly one quarter of the portrait subjects I photograph often joke with me,"So you can Photoshop my lines away, right??" They are usually only half joking, and for good reason. The camera can sometimes be a cruel mirror. Watching live cosmetic surgery is kind of like watching live Photoshopping. Patty, Karen and Elaine were volunteer patients for a live demonstration of dermal filler and neurotoxin use at the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery's annual scientific meeting in Las Vegas in mid-January. They allowed me to photograph the morning session, and although it was slightly grotesque, watching someone's lines get magically Photoshopped away was also very soothing and reassuring, like a real life clone tool.