Food Photography: The Drive to Document

Yesterday in the test kitchen, Amanda, hospitable as she is, asked if anyone wanted coffee. This is normal. She set out to grind some Stumptown beans in a hand grinder. Also normal. At this point, a table full of us grabbed for our Iphone cameras – no, fumbled – like a herd of celebrity-chasing paparazzi. This is not normal.

To be fair, it would have made a great shot. But it still reinforces a question so often raised today: why are we so obsessed with food photography?

This obsession with food photography – and the need share it among a community, often times through social media – drives us to document even the most simple and ordinary of things. Like the grinding of coffee. We’re even scrambling to get our cameras post-lentil spill, because the way the little beans arranged themselves on the floor was artistic, the Pollack of legumes. (It was at least Instagram-worthy.)

EcoSalon considers the current obsession with food porn further, suggesting that “food photos nowadays give us more than just a visual of the food. They make us feel that if we make that certain meal, we’ll also get the ambiance.” We may all be a bit more camera-obsessed, but it’s hard to see the downside: people are eating beautifully, more often, and documenting it all. And as slghtly more scientific proof, an NPR poll confirms that we’re all into the new trend. We say snap away. After you style your food, that is.

Foodie Underground: Why Are We Food Porn Obsessed? from EcoSalon