Farrah Fawcett photographed by Douglas Kirkland, April 1, 1994 (Getty Images).

Since I've started collecting Farrah Fawcett memorabilia, I've seen a tremendous amount of her online fans posting altered images. This practice is common among Facebook group pages.

​However, it's important to point out that this style of alteration is highly unethical. It's one thing to do traditional darkroom changes like adjusting contrast, sharpness, dodging and burning etc. It's something entirely different to change the shape of her face, hair, and the natural look of her skin. For example, if you compare the original photograph by Harry Langdon and the fake image below, you can see the changes go far beyond traditional photographic techniques. 

Photographic changes taken to this extreme are not only disrespectful to the photographer, but also to Farrah's legacy. In my opinion, nobody has the right to alter her physical attributes because they "feel" it makes a better photograph. More importantly, as a fan you have an obligation to represent her with a certain amount of respect and truth and creating "fake" images such as this is a level of degradation that should never be allowed. 

Original

Altered image of Farrah Fawcett

​As a teen in Japan, a friend returned to the states and sent me a poster which I immediately tacked-up in my bedroom. Even though there was a signature printed over her thigh, I didn’t have a clue who this woman was. Little did I know that it would go on to become the most popular poster ever sold and that the woman on my wall would eventually become part of my life.

I was commissioned to photograph Farrah for a magazine cover and an inside spread to accompany an interview she had done. I was given a rough edit of the article and they left the creative direction up to me. I started kicking around ideas but before I could nail anything down, Farrah called my studio to discuss the shoot. She warned me that she had a new publicist who was determined to rebrand her image. Farrah had recently made some appearances that had people questioning her erratic behavior, most notably during an interview with David Letterman.  Farrah was meeting with her publicist at her home the following day and suggested I join them to discuss the shoot. To continue reading this article, click here.