When Your Phone “Improves” You: Exposing the Hidden Machinery of Digital Beauty

Every photo we take passes through invisible algorithms designed to “enhance” us. These systems brighten skin, narrow faces, and smooth imperfections — all in the name of beauty.

Our phones “improve” us without asking. Gretchen Andrew’s Facetune Portraits makes that invisible process impossible to ignore.

But who decided what “improvement” looks like? Digital Beauty?

In her Facetune Portraits series, Gretchen Andrew reclaims that process, pushing it to its breaking point. She uses AI image tools trained on global beauty pageants to reveal what the algorithm considers “ideal.” The results are uncanny — and disturbingly uniform.

By making the invisible edits visible, Andrew forces us to confront how technology standardizes individuality. The “quiet” improvements made by our devices are anything but neutral; they reflect coded biases, cultural hierarchies, and digital fantasies about perfection.

Facetune Portraits turns a passive process into a confrontation — a loud, messy, and undeniable reflection of how beauty is programmed.