Keira Knightley was recently featured in a photo spread in Interview Magazine. The piece was actually about photographer Patrick Demarchelier. In the article, Knightley interviews the photographer. She asks questions about digital versus film photography, what cameras he likes, etc.
But in the photo spread, Knightley herself is featured. In one shot of the spread, she is topless.
Knightley recently spoke to the Times of London about the shoot and about her one rule for posing topless.
“I’ve had my body manipulated so many times for so many different reasons, whether it’s paparazzi photographers or for film posters. And that [shoot] was one of the ones where I said, ‘OK, I’m fine doing the topless shot so long as you don’t make them any bigger or retouch.’ Because it does feel important to say, ‘It really doesn’t matter what shape you are.’”
Knightley explained that, although she loves photography, she is concerned that it is so difficult to take a photograph that conveys a woman’s natural beauty that retouching has become too prevalent.
“I think women’s bodies are a battleground and photography is partly to blame. It’s much easier to take a picture of somebody without a shape; it simply is. Whereas you need tremendous skill to be able to get a woman’s shape and make it look like it does in life, which is always beautiful.”
Knightley is very critical of the standards of beauty in today’s society and how aging is so difficult for women because of the comments thrown their way.
“It’s really desperate, the image we have of women, and when women became invisible or when you hear someone say, ‘She’s let herself go,’ whatever the f— that means. What — because she’s got grey hair? I do think it’s something that needs to be addressed.”