Food Photography: A Form of Class Separation Part 1

Food Photography: A Form of Class Separation

Part 1: Professional Food Photography

Professional Photo of a Turkey Courtesy of Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture 

Amateur Photograph of Cheerios

Professional Photo of Fruit Loops Courtesy of www.dreamstime.com

 

Professional Photograph of a Lobster Tail Surrounded by Scallops Courtesy of www.tonygiese.com

         Food photography, also know as food porn, is the art of taking photographs of food. Professional food photography is everywhere in the world today and is primarily used for advertising of various food products, restaurants, or any other business that pertains to cuisine. Even though food porn may be thought of as only another advertising technique, there is a lot of controversy surrounding it and what it conveys about the various classes in society. Along with professional photographs of cuisine, amateur food porn’s increased popularity has led to some New York restaurants “banning customers from taking photos of their meals and uploading the pics to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram” (Mosbergen, 1). In this two part blog I will take an in depth look at several facets of professional food photography and what those photos affirm about society as well as how amateur food porn is being used through social media sites as another way to put one’s wealth on display.  

        Unlike cooking a simple meal at home, there are many steps involved with preparing food for a photograph. It is an all day event that begins at 9:00 A.M like many other jobs. For the food stylists who are preparing the dish, it is all about precision. When the goal is for the “food to appeal to the five senses, yet […] be translated into a single visual image” (Carafoli, 94) everything must be done to perfection. Even the smallest mistake can ruin a photograph and make it worthless to the paying client. Unlike many other objects photographed, “[f]ood has a life expectancy of its own, and its life expectancy is short” (Carafoli, 96). This is one of the major difficulties associated with capturing the perfect food porn photograph. In order to ensure that the best image possible is captured, food stylists go to great lengths to obtain the highest quality ingredients as well as numerous back up ingredients in the event there is a problem with the originals. For example in the photograph of the turkey above, there were “at least twenty birds […] kept on hand for the shoot in case problems arise’’ (Carafoli, 94).

            The amount of preparation associated with food porn is partially why it is controversial. By spending hours perfecting a single dish, food stylists have prepared food in their photographs that is impossible for the average cook to replicate. In her article, Food Porn, Anne E. McBride writes how “food porn generally evokes the unattainable: cooks will never achieve the results shown in certain cookbooks, magazines, or television shows, nor will they ever master the techniques” (McBride, 38). For instance, the image of the turkey above looks delicious and perfectly cooked, yet it would be impossible for even the world’s best chef to replicate. This is due to the fact that this turkey is not only undercooked, but was also sprayed with a browning agent several times while it was in the oven. Even though it may look like a delectable turkey, it is completely inedible. This idea of the food in the images being unattainable is part of the reason why food photography was given the name “food porn” in the 1980s.  Food photography is similar to sex pornography because it is also something that is watched, but never obtained. People can watch cooking shows on television or follow recipes in magazines but they will never be able to replicate the food they see in professional photographs.

            Unlike the wealthy, families in the lower class of society have no chance of reproducing food porn at home because most of the food pictured is out of their price range. McBride writes, “Roland Barthes discussed what is essentially food porn in his 1957 collection, Mythologies. Commenting on the food-related content in Elle magazine that offers fantasy to those who cannot afford to cook such meals, he writes: ‘[C]ooking according to Elle is meant for the eye alone, since sight is a genteel sense’’’ (McBride, 38). Because they cannot afford the food photographed, food porn is another way in which poor people are shown what they cannot have. A great example of a professionally photographed entrée that is not in the budget of lower class families is the one above of the lobster tail surrounded by scallops. Even without the glass of wine, that meal probably costs upwards of thirty dollars. There is no way that someone living off food stamps struggling to pay the bills could ever afford to spend that much money on a single meal. Professional photographers have even begun dressing up relatively cheap foods to the point where they too no longer look attainable to the lower classes. One of the photos of cereal above is a professionally taken photo of Fruit Loops and the other is a photo I took of Cheerios. The photographer of the Fruit Loops has dressed up the relatively cheap cereal brand to the point where it now looks like a fine dining experience where in reality most people’s cereal looks like the one in my photograph.

            In an age where there are food shortages around the globe and in the United States, food porn seems even more like a form of class discrimination.  “In 2006, 43.1 percent of households with children with incomes below the poverty level in the U.S experienced food insecurity” (Stuff, 33). That means that almost half of the people living in poverty in the United States did not always have the means necessary to eat when they were hungry. If a vast amount of the country is struggling to put food on the table it seems quite insensitive that food advertisements and cooking shows are filled with cuisine that much of the country cannot afford. Much like a shiny new red Ferrari, food has become a way in which the wealthy can broadcast their elite status in society. Along with the images themselves, the amount of food during a professional food photo shoot is another way in which the elite flaunt their wealth in the faces of those less fortunate. Not only can the lower class not afford most of the food photographed, but now they also have to see wasted food, while they struggle to put food on the table for their families. For instance in the turkey photo, those twenty turkeys needed for the shoot could have easily fed twenty families, but instead they were all wasted in an attempt to get the perfect shot to draw the attention of a wealthy consumer who may be interested in buying the product.

Bibliography

Carafoli, John F. "Tempting the Palate: The Food Stylist's Art." Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture 3.2 (2003): 94-97. JSTOR. Web. 2 May 2013. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/10.1525/gfc.2003.3.2.94.pdf>. This article describes what goes into the preparation of taking a photograph of food as well as the history of food styling. The author of this essay is trying to convey how much work goes into taking a single photo of food because of the necessity for the photograph to appeal to all five senses of the viewer. This text will be very useful in my photo essay because it will give me the information necessary to understand the difference between a good and bad photograph of food.

         

          McBride, Anne E. "Food Porn." Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture 10.1 (2010): 38-46. JSTOR. Web. 6 May 2013. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/10.1525/gfc.2010.10.1.38.pdf?acceptTC=true>. This article discusses the idea of food porn focusing on whether or not the name "food porn" is a fair way to describe food photography. This author’s main goal is to contest whether food porn actually does exist or if it is just a bad nickname for food photography. This article will be very useful in my photo essay because it gives me a lot of information on food porn as well as social issues involved with the topic.

           Mosbergen, Dominique. "As Restaurants Ban Photos, Some Worry About The End Of Food Porn.” Huffington Post 24 Jan. 2013: n. pag. Huffington Post. Web. 9 May 2013. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/24/restaurant-photo-ban-death-of-food-porn_n_2543306.html>.

           Stuff, Janice E., et al. "The Prevalence of Food Insecurity and Associated Factors among Households with Children in Head Start Programs in Houston, Texas and Birmingham, Alabama." Race, Gender & Class 16.3/4 (2009): 31-47. JSTOR. Web. 6 May 2013. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/41674673.pdf>. This article discusses food insecurity in Birmingham, Alabama and Houston, Texas. The author's thesis is to prove to the leader how the food security in these cities are much worse than in most places in the United States. This article will be useful in my photo essay because it gives me useful statistics on food insecurity for not only families in these cities but also in the United States as a whole.