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An Israeli fashion photographer has initiated a worldwide campaign to change the definition of beauty by encouraging models not be skinny
If Israeli fashion photographer Adi Barkan has anything to say about it, Israel will soon be as famous in the international modeling world for its revolutionary commitment to health as it is for its up-and-coming models.
Barkan, the renowned owner of a Tel Aviv modeling agency, has spent the last few years bringing the problem of eating disorders in the modeling community to light. While international demand for Israeli models has increased, so too has his awareness of anorexia among young girls in Israel and around the world. Just a few months ago he rushed 33-year-old Israeli model Hila Elmalich, who was suffering from anorexia, to the hospital after he found her collapsed unconscious on the floor of her home. Elmalich, who worked with the Israeli branch of modeling agency Elite International, died last week, weighing under 27 kilograms.
Barkan's goal, through legislation and public relations, is to try to change the very definition of beauty, one kilo at a time. In 2004, working with MK Inbal Gavriely, he successfully submitted legislation to the Knesset requiring all Israeli modeling agencies to use the Body Mass Index (BMI) as a pre-requisite for employment (BMI is defined as an individual's weight divided by the square of their height).
At a recent audition in Tel Aviv organized by the Israeli branch of the Elite International agency (which in the...