Polaroidian Slip

Swim Daily has taken to running some scans of pre-shoot Polaroids of the models “From the Vault.” These are quick shots to see what the girls look like in the suits before they even set off for the exotic locales

I like them a lot, not least because their most recent gave us some nice photos of Julie Henderson.

I love how casual they are. The women have no clue the photos will ever be made public, so sometimes they’re just standing passively and matter-of-factly, sometimes they’re just smiling pleasantly, sometimes they’re goofing off. Often there is a clothes rack in the shot bursting with bikinis, which is also fun.

And the photos are a refreshing break from the excessive Photoshopping that goes on in the magazine. I suppose it’s possible that SI would bother to touch up these Polaroids, but why? They’re dark and small and grainy photos, so I’m going to assume you’re seeing the honest truth.

I mean look, Julie has a clear bikini-bottom-shaped tan line in a bunch of these!

For me, one of the most heartbreaking photoshoots in SI is Brooklyn Decker’s from 2011. Now I’m no graphic design expert, so I could be way off. But it seems there’s something exceedingly artificial and otherworldly about those shots.

It looks like that level of editing that goes beyond removing a mole or brightening a mouthful of teeth, and into smoothing away pores and adjusting the relative heights of ears and eyes.

I would really like to see the original, untouched photos to see just how much was done to them.

And it’s Brooklyn Decker! She doesn’t need any help being gorgeous! But I think the editors sometimes get carried away, and we wind up with some photos that don’t trust us to recognize what a beautiful woman looks like.