Lena Dunham Accuses Tentaciones of Photoshopping Her Cover: "This Is Not What My Body Has Ever Looked Like"

El País' supplement editors blame the photo agency and the Girls actress' publicist

By Zach Johnson Mar 01, 2016 2:52 PMTags
Lena Dunham, El Pais

The Lena Dunham who appears on the cover of Tentaciones is not the Lena Dunham fans are used to seeing each week on HBO's Girls. The award-winning actress, director, producer and writer appears on the March cover of the monthly supplement, which comes free with Spain's highest-circulating newspaper, El País.

Though she was flattered to be featured in the periodical, Dunham was upset to learn that her body may have been airbrushed to appear thinner than it is. "Oh hello El Pais! I am genuinely honored to be on your cover and so happy you licensed a pic by @ruvenafanador, who always makes me feel gorgeous. BUT this is NOT what my body has ever looked like or will ever look like- the magazine has done more than the average photoshop," she wrote on Instagram Monday. "So if you're into what I do, why not be honest with your readers? Much love, Lena."

Tentaciones published an open letter Tuesday, addressed to Dunham. The editors' note, which E! News roughly translated from Spanish to English, reads as follows:

Dear Lena,

As you know, we have devoted the March cover of Tentaciones to you. With it we wanted to celebrate the success of your series Girls and reflect on your impact as an artist and activist in various social and political causes. However, today we have learned of your dissatisfaction.

Of course, we are aware that any medium has to take responsibility for what it publishes, but this photo was previously approved by the agency, the photographer and your publicist. For our cover, we used a picture from a session you did ​​in 2013 with photographer Ruven Afanador, published at the time by Entertainment Weekly. Tentaciones acquired that picture through the Corbis agency and used the original that was sent to us without applying any retouching. Those who know and follow our magazine know that we do not use Photoshop or other digital tools to change the physique of the people featured on our cover or inside stories. This time we just cropped the original image to fit the format of our cover.

Here you can see the original photo shared in his day by the photographer Ruven Afanador on his Facebook page and then the cover of Tentaciones. As you can see, the image is exactly the same.

We are pleased that you hold your rebellious spirit. Leave your address and we will send you our magazine every month for free so you can verify that we like to reflect things as they are.

Lena Dunham, photographed in New York City on January 8th, 2013 for Entertainment Weekly...

Posted by Ruven Afanador on Thursday, February 14, 2013

The Corbis Agency issued a statement after Tentaciones' letter was published. "I can confirm the magazine have used the photo as supplied by Corbis," a rep told BuzzFeed Tuesday. "In line with standard practice, all retouching would have been cleared through Lena's PR before being made available for syndication."

Soon after, Dunham issued an apology via Instagram:

Hey Tentaciones- thank you for sending the uncropped image (note to the confused: not unretouched, uncropped!) and for being so good natured about my request for accuracy. I understand that a whole bunch of people approved this photo before it got to you- and why wouldn't they? I look great. But it's a weird feeling to see a photo and not know if it's your own body anymore (and I'm pretty sure that will never be my thigh width but I honestly can't tell what's been slimmed and what hasn't.) I'm not blaming anyone (y'know, except society at large.) I have a long and complicated history with retouching. I wanna live in this wild world and play the game and get my work seen, and I also want to be honest about who I am and what I stand for. Maybe it's turning 30. Maybe it's seeing my candidate of choice get bashed as much for having a normal woman's body as she is for her policies. Maybe it's getting sick and realizing ALL that matters is that this body work, not that it be milky white and slim. But I want something different now. Thanks for helping me figure that out and sorry to make you the problem, you cool Spanish magazine you. Time to get to the bottom of this in a bigger way. Time to walk the talk. With endless love, Lena PS I'd love the Tentaciones subscription I was offered!

A photo posted by Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) on