I’m far from the first to point this out. Even amongst the blogosphere, dozens of blogs specifically dedicated to “Bad Food Photography” exist. And yet, it persists. But I’m not just talking about bad food photography. I’m talking about ANY and ALL food photography! My question is: why?
Don’t get me wrong. In many ways, the now-ubiquitous nature of digital cameras has been a boon. I love the fact that our chances of getting a decent photo of a rare event (Bigfoot sighting, Alien spaceship landing, my Uncle Brian picking up a check, etc.) has inreased from a ratio of 1:1,000,000 to about 1:1.2 (though sadly, none of the preceeding seem to have happened yet) But somehow, along with the omnipresent camera came the inexplicable notion that “People will want to see this! I am interested in this, therefore many of my friends will likely be interested as well!”
But it doesn’t always work that way. Especially when it comes to food. And even more extreme when it comes to home-made food. First of all, the reason YOU are interested in the food is because YOU will soon be the one EATING the food. To us, it’s just a picture. And most likely, a crappy picture. To add mundaneness to inanity, it’s quite often not even interesting food. OK, if you’re in Japan and someone just served you a raw shrimp tail, with the shrimp’s (still conscious) upper body preserved on a block of ice, watching you eat its tail, then yeah, that warrants a photo. But let’s face it: that’s NEVER what we see. All we see are iPhone snapshots of “look at this barbecued salmon and asparagus I cooked up! Yum!”
If I was staying at a hotel that had a rotating, octagon-shaped, mirror-ceiling, satin-covered, booze-dispensing, mattress stuffed with $100 bills Hefner 9000 bed, yeah, I’d take a picture and share it. But do you really need to see my “Queen-size Serta pillowtop” bed? In short: pick your moments, people. Shoot all you want, but post pictures as if they’re on film. Remember when you had to rely on film? Where every picture carried with it the thought of “should I waste a picture on this?” Or, taking it a step further: “I can’t take these in for developing now! I’ve got two more pictures left on the roll!” While the latter is just silly, the former is a good reminder. Instead of focusing on what the photographer DID take a picture of, consider all of the countless boring, uninteresting things he DIDN’T take a picture of. Photography used to be about “waiting for just the right moment,” whereas now it seems to be “shoot absolutely everything, and chances are you’ll capture the right moment if and when it happens.” Bleh.
I know food-porn is in full-effect these days (Food network, countless reality shows, etc.) but it doesn’t always translate well to things like twitter or facebook. What you’re posting usually amounts to little more than “here’s what I’m eating for dinner tonight,” which might as well be the textbook definition of “early prediction of the worst use of Twitter ever, confirmed.” I mean, before things like facebook, twitter, and digital photography, did you ever think people would care enough to hear/see about your meals? Granted, if you made some “work of art” cake or an over-the-top sushi presentation, that’s worth some photos. But that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about “here’s a plate of pasta I boiled, and garnished with (insert trendy spice of the month)” followed by a smattering of wanna-be epicurists saying little more than “Yum!”
What’s causing all this? Is it Food-Porn? Is it: “taking pictures is easy, so I just tend to take pictures of whatever’s in front of me”? or is it simply “I must SHARE!”?
I dunno what causes it. What I do know: the results are nearly always BAD. Food is notoriously difficult to photograph, even for professionals. As mentioned previously, there are entire blogs devoted to displaying failed attempts to make Salisbury Steak look edible, only to fail on a catestrophic level. Food photography in the hands of an amateur can result in pure nightmare fuel. In short: you fail food photography, whoever you are. And yes, I mean you. This is not an insult, it’s just a fact. I’m sure if I attempted it, I’d fail food photography too.
It’s often said “a picture is worth a thousand words.” If that’s true, then the reverse must also be true. And since we know that pictures of food are almost certainly going to fail to do justice to the finished product, I propose the following: the next time you consider posting a picture of your meal, since it’s just SO DAMNED INTERESTING, why not take the time to write 1,000 words about it instead?
Your post will only be about 200 words longer than this one, but will undoubtedly have a greater impact than img_lunch_chkfrdsteak.jpg