Photographer Blasts Fashion Industry Allegedly Dangerous Pressures

KAREN MOONEY of ABC NEWS With Editing:

Some time back, TV viewers in Israel saw disturbing images of a former top model -- shockingly thin and semi-comatose after being rushed to a hospital.

That model, Hila Elmalich, died last Wednesday -- and the man who found her unconscious in her home, fashion photographer Adi Barkan, blames the modeling industry for Elmalich's sickness.

After years of shooting photographs and running his own agency, Barkan -- seen cradling Elmalich in his arms in those Israeli television pictures -- is saying he can no longer ignore what some women will do to become fashion mannequins or how the fashion business encourages them to do it.

Not only do some photographers and designers seek thin models, they can use image-enhancing software to make them appear thinner still. And those unreal images are sold to all women as the beauty ideal.
When Barkan spoke about the issue during a television interview, he was flooded with phone calls from girls suffering with anorexia.

Barkan led the charge against the pressure on models to be ultra-thin, and in 2004 Israel became the first nation to pass laws requiring modeling agencies to hire only healthy models who have a body mass index -- a measure of body fat -- of 19 or above. That means that a 5'9" woman would have to weigh at least 129 pounds.

The issue flared up across the globe last year with several high-profile incidents.

In August, 22-year-old Uruguayan model Luisel Ramos died during Fashion Week in Montevideo after reportedly surviving on lettuce and diet drinks.

A few months later, it happened again. Twenty-one-year-old Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston, who was 5'8", was reported to have weighed just 88 pounds at the time -- that's a BMI of 13.5.

Spanish officials took action, requiring models to have a minimum BMI of 18 in order to participate in Madrid's Fashion Week. Italy then ordered fashion officials to secure proof that the models they hire do not suffer from eating disorders.

In New York, the Council of Fashion Designers of America issued voluntary guidelines to raise awareness -- urging designers to promote the message that beauty is health -- but setting no minimum BMI requirement.

Officials in other key fashion capitals, London and Paris, did not act on the issue.

Designers say that clothes just look better

on thin models and that the curves of more

shapely models distract from the clothing

they are showing off. They say rules

and punishments would only stifle creativity.

Anorexia and bulimia, in particular, are complex diseases with physical, emotional and social roots. But a study by the British Medical Association confirmed the link between the images of "abnormally thin" models on TV and in magazines and the rise in anorexia and bulimia.

According to the Academy for Eating Disorders, 10 percent or more of late adolescent and adult women report symptoms of eating disorders at any one time. The AED says:

those who have such a powerful influence

on the perception of beauty must take more responsibility.

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Patricia, Editor
Related Stories/Links:

Dying to Be Thin

Eating Disorder Recovery Info

Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders