Generally speaking, using software to edit pictures of celebrities so they’re smiling is not a good idea. At best, the results are fascinatingly unpleasant. At worst, they’re a cultural and aesthetic horrorshow. The latest case in point is a collection of Eminem photos where his perpetual angry-boy frown has been, via technology, flipped upside down. It is wrong.
“Courtesy” of Facebook user Mike Brown, these images take Eminem’s tough publicity shots and, instead of making them a bit more welcoming, turn his face into a series of deranged, toothy grins.
First, we have Slim Shady as we’ve always known him—broody, slightly menacing.
Then, the sun breaking out from behind the clouds, a bizarre smile is glued onto his mug.
Speaking to Bored Panda about his ungodly work, Brown says manipulating pictures of faces is “just funny” to him. He describes his mad scientific process, which involves doing “a first edit in Photoshop” followed by a pass with an app and the application of “a few filters to make the image seem real.” As to his latest choice in subject, Brown says he chose Eminem “because that guy never smiles!”
Not all of them are as unhinged as the set shown above. In some, Eminem almost—almost—turns out looking like a real human being after Brown’s finished his tinkering.
Mostly, though, the results are horrendous. Brown’s demonic endeavor reaches its nadir, however, with a triptych of Eminem’s face slowly transitioning from angry to amused to, finally, a manic, unnatural joy.
There are even more of these available on Brown’s Facebook page in case you feel like spending more time staring into the unholy abyss our technology has wrought. If not, please enjoy living with the images now etched into your subconscious.
[via Bored Panda]
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