The Hidden Scars of Social Media : Unmasking Filters for Face Impact

Every scroll comes with a price.What social media sells as beauty often hides something deeper — the quiet harm of comparison, distortion, and erasure.

 Facetune Portraits makes the hidden scars of social media visible.

When I created Facetune Portraits, I wanted to reveal those hidden scars. I wasn’t interested in the polished surface of perfection, but in the quiet, unseen consequences of chasing it.

Each image begins as a collaboration with AI — and a confrontation. The algorithm offers its version of “improvement,” smoothing, shrinking, and brightening faces until individuality dissolves. I take those digital manipulations and turn them into mirrors: artworks that reflect how technology edits not just our images, but our identities.

The scars I’m talking about aren’t physical. They’re the kind we carry internally — the subtle way we look at ourselves differently after years of filtered images and algorithmic ideals. The kind of harm that doesn’t bruise, but still marks.

By transforming these digital distortions into art, I make them impossible to ignore.Instead of hiding the edits, I reveal them. Instead of chasing perfection, I let imperfection speak. The filters for face are replacing our identity.

When Facetune Portraits entered the Whitney Museum’s permanent collection, it felt like a recognition that even the most personal wounds — our insecurities, our negotiations with visibility — belong in the story of contemporary art.

Social media may hide its damage behind filters. But art can make it visible again.