Newslinks
Photograph Your Every Meal?
- Food Photography (via nytimes)
Writing down what you eat is so yesterday. The new way to track it all, reports the New York Times: documentary meal photography. Tucker Shaw, author of Everything I Ate: A Year in the Life of My Mouth, photo-documented everything he ate in 2004 in an effort to create a food memoir. Foodspotting — a community of people who photograph the foods they enjoy out and about and earn peer recognition for their finds — does for meals what Foursquare does for competitive nights out. Or maybe you just want to see what you ate and don't need to talk about it. There are people doing that too.
Follow the lead of Javier Garcia, who just posts photos of each meal. No description, no words, just image after image of food. There's even a Flickr group for sharing your photos. I think I see a new feat here... Though I think you can probably take it too far. Javier Garcia's ultimate plan: "To one day use the photographs to calculate how much money he spends to consume a calorie versus how much he spends in gym memberships and sports gear to burn a calorie." My head hurts just thinking about that calculation.
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I take pictures of my food at restaurants and things at home that I think are especially yummy. People think I'm weird, but my food photos on flickr are some of my most viewed.
Submitted by gleam on 04.07.10 at 09:47.
This is sort of the pinnacle of annoying foodieism.
Submitted by erikka on 04.07.10 at 10:03.
I second erikka. I know 10 or more girls that do this. Who cares?
Submitted by Mr. Mohawk on 04.07.10 at 10:10.
I dated a guy who did this for a year too and posted it on flickr... I now think of it as a rather pretentious thing to do and I don't know if it is directly correlated to him (he was a hugely pretentious hipster architect with a fantastic mustache) or if it is because it just is.
Submitted by Llaves on 04.07.10 at 10:12.
I take photos of things I make, sometimes cookbook style. But I gotta say, I'm intrigued by how obsessive some people are. And the book by Tucker Shaw looks great - he took it as a personal memoir through food, and talked about the feelings, place, but not the food itself.
And food is one of our only true commonalities - we all do it, we all need it, we can talk about it with anyone. That alone makes me want to document my food just to see the reactions.
Submitted by sandyliz on 04.07.10 at 10:34.
Taking photos of food you make is one thing - you should be proud of homemade food, it shows craft and skill and thoughfulness. Food purchased from a restaurant is another thing...
Submitted by erikka on 04.07.10 at 10:57.
I don't know erikka. I understand why you think its annoying, but I also think it's valid. Definitely for the tracking of what you eat, although it would be easy to make that overly obsessive.
But the Foodspotting group? I definitely think that's interesting.
Submitted by sandyliz on 04.07.10 at 11:25.
I take photos of my food, restaurant made or not, and send it to a friend if and when I know they might appreciate it (such as a burger the size of my head, for example), or if a friend has made a dish for me. I really don't find it annoying or pretentious. On the other hand, I can see how people might take food photos to show others that they've been somewhere expensive/exclusive/"cool" or whatever. That's roll-my-eyes material.
You take photos when you appreciate something. That's all.
Submitted by finessa on 04.07.10 at 12:16.
I don't consider myself a foodie, I take pictures of things I like - to remember them, to remind myself, to practice photography, to share with people (like a review of the restaurant) and because food is not only good to eat, sometimes it is good to look at.
Submitted by gleam on 04.07.10 at 12:46.
I think there's a difference between taking photos of food because you think it's interesting and photos of food because you think someone else will find it interesting. It's the latter that's annoying.
Sure, a few shots of "My pickle looks like Jesus" or "Holy crap I just ordered a steak the size of Pamela's bust" are fine. And, of course, food can be as savory for the eyes as for the taste buds. But EVERY MEAL??? That's food narcissism. I repeat: who cares?
It'd be like taking photos of your every outfit every day of the year, but you change clothes 3-4 times a day. "Everyone wears clothes," sure. But I still don't give a shit.
Submitted by Mr. Mohawk on 04.07.10 at 01:04.
I feel like if it floats your boat, go for it. That said, I can't tell you just how over it I am of food blogs, food obsessions, food porn, &etc. It's just TOO MUCH!
However, probably at some point I will search for this piece on SW so I can check out the foodspotting link; it sounds like a cool idea. I think the internets in general have encouraged an OCD sensation on consumption of all kinds, sometimes in a good way, perhaps more often than not, not so good.
Submitted by spindig on 04.07.10 at 01:23.
spindig, you just made me so happy saying you're going to search for this again to look up Foodspotting. Which I, of course, have joined, and will be happy to tell you about later if you like.
Mohawk, now I'm going to photograph my outfits every day. I like that even better :p
Submitted by sandyliz on 04.07.10 at 01:39.
I would love to hear more about it! And I definitely search stuff on SW quite a bit, treasure trove that it is with so many gems nestled away.
You know what this reminds me of? A Time Out interview a while back with some local chef who said how he found it depressing that instead of going home after a great meal and having great sex, people were going home and writing in their food blogs.
Submitted by spindig on 04.07.10 at 01:48.
sandyliz, have fun in laundry purgatory!
spin, that is the saddest thing I've heard all day :(
Submitted by Mr. Mohawk on 04.07.10 at 01:54.
ok, that is really really sad. i'm with the chef - great food should inspire great sex, not blase blogging.
Submitted by sandyliz on 04.07.10 at 02:17.
It is a visual food diary. If you don't want to see, keep it moving.
Submitted by mellowdee9 on 04.07.10 at 02:53.
I have to disagree Mr. Mohawk. I have for the past two years taken a picture of every morsel I eat Monday-Friday, and pretentious or not people are interested. My blog, where I post my more oft than not boring food choices, gets over 35,000 hits a month. Not a mammoth in terms of successful blogs, but certainly showing an interest by random strangers in the inner workings of my digestive tract. People, apparently do care. Having said that, it doesn't bother me if you don't want to know about the trail mix I had at 10am--I forgive you.
Submitted by Kimberly Rae Miller on 04.07.10 at 05:04.
I get that some people think photographing food is a sure sign of OCD - however, I think there are a few obvious benefits of giving it a go. 1) it automatically raises conscousness about what we put in our mouths 2) potentially it raises the accountability bar 3) we can see and track 'patterns'- and that means we have a better chance to create positive change 4) we can work on our photography and cooking skills! Sounds like a win/win to me.
PS/ Not sure what makes people think undertaking a challenge like this requires anyone's approval - no one really cares if you think ithe undertaking is pretentious or boring. Your attention is not required to make it a useful undertaking ;)
Submitted by AkaFiona on 04.07.10 at 11:29.
Kimberley - Where is this blog? Link please!
And AkaFiona - " Your attention is not required to make it a useful undertaking ;)" best. retort. ever.
Submitted by sandyliz on 04.08.10 at 08:53.
Sandyliz: I warn you, I'm not a master photographer--www.thekimchallenge.com
Submitted by Kimberly Rae Miller on 04.08.10 at 09:49.
I love it Kim! And your photography is great, no need to apologize.
Submitted by sandyliz on 04.08.10 at 10:25.
Kimberly Rae Miller--your forgiveness is well received. However, I still don't see this as anything but a fad, and in 10 years when VH1 does a 'Remember the 00's' I'm sure blogging and consequently "food blogging" will be well-mocked.
Until then, go for it.
To AkaFiona and others: seriously, I'm not bashing your picture food ways, and though I'm all about the Jay-Z "If you don't like my lyrics you can press fast forward" attitude, it's not really necessary.
I will say, a hyper awareness of food in my experience of relationships with women that have eating disorders is a major symptom of someone with an ED. Don't be offended, because I'm not implying anything, just explaining that stuff like this freaks me out for reasons well beyond "[magically] improving your cooking skills through Internet photography."
Submitted by Mr. Mohawk on 04.08.10 at 11:11.
Hey there Mr M - I am guessing you are neither a photographer or a cook? Serial picture taking (regardless of subject matter) may be a ''you'll never get it unless you try it'' sorta thing. I recently completed a series of 60 morning photos (posted 'em up on Facebook along with a good number of friends who joined my challenge). All I can say is when I was photographing my mornings and doing it daily - it changed the way I ''saw'' them. Perception became altered and I begin to pay attention to mundane things in a manner I usually reserve for only ... very important things.
My photography improved too :)
In respect to food photographing: after a recent 3 month hospital stay, I am making some lifestyle changes, and welcome the opportunity to pay attention to what I am fueling my body with. Also, I'm still shell-shocked from hospital ''food'' and so this challenge neatly ties in with my desire to eat good food!
Maybe my earlier serial photography challenge makes me open to this one. Anyhoo, I encourage your own exploration. Judge not til thee hath snapped thy own thirty days worth of something ;)
~AkaFiona, who has spent a lifetime being terribly unobsessed about food.
Submitted by AkaFiona on 04.08.10 at 12:47.
I hadn't thought about it like that, hm. I'm not sure what you mean by "cook;" I cook every day, and inherited my grilling from a champion cook off family, and make the best jalapeno mashed potatoes this side of the Mississippi. I couldn't care less about presentation--I sincerely doubt a dazzling photo of dinner will elicit a "needs more salt" response from anyone--which is what a large chunk of this humbug seems to be about, as well as vague things like "accountability," and "dieting," etc. I'm completely aware of what I eat already.
Of course, food photography is an entire industry, and doing anything regularly will improve how well you do it, I see that now. (not sarcastic) Thanks for pointing it out, I'm a little stubborn, if you haven't noticed ;)
I'm not a photographer. I like my diet, and there'd be way too many shots of shots and pints in there anyway. I wish you'd been able to take photos of your hospital food though! Stuff like that, or the Fed Up With Lunch blog I would totally dig.
But photos of Kimberly Rae's almonds at 10am? No thanks.
Submitted by Mr. Mohawk on 04.08.10 at 01:13.
Ooo, thanks for the school lunch link. Love stuff like that - coincidence that I own titanium spork?
Submitted by spindig on 04.08.10 at 01:40.