… today … photographers prefer disfigurement to adornment. It is now chic to do your worst to people.
Margaret Anderson
Margaret Anderson (1886–1973), U.S. editor and memoirist. The Strange Necessity, part 1 (1969).
Anderson was reacting to a type of portrait photography that was currently fashionable, and exposed, rather than idealized, the subject’s face; Diane Arbus and Richard Avedon were prominent among the photographers who popularized it. Their subjects often appeared grotesque and probably looked much worse than they did in person.