Photographing food vs food photography
.
Food is a very important aspect of every culture, I think you will agree this statement is rather obvious. It’s tradition, it’s lifestyle, it’s the biggest industry of them all, it’s everywhere.
.
.
It is also politics, which isn’t that obvious to everyone. I have a rather special, politically induced relationship with it – being a vegan, but that’s a personal matter, and not a topic to discuss here, it is the reason though food appears in my work quite often.
.
.
What is the difference between photographing food and food photography ? The first and obvious answer is – food photography is a standardised commercial branch of advertising and marketing image making, while photographing food would be everything else. Including your instagram photos of what you are about to have for breakfast, but that is not what I am interested in.
.
.
I kind of wanted to use food photography as an example here. Marketing images generally have one goal – to make you reach down your wallet. My point being, any standardised commercial part of photographic business as part of the media world, at its core, provides you with a very narrow, simplistic, and goal oriented view of it’s chosen topic (be it food, wedding, sport, fashion etc).
.
.
That is not to say there is anything wrong with the topics – we have all seen deep and thought provoking photographs of food, sport, and sometimes even that biggest babilon brainwashing, sexist, racist whore of them all, fashion.
.
.
Some of them were also commercial shots, done by pros on assignment. Isn’t that a contradiction? Some people try to sneak some thought into their commercial practice, past their art directors, clients, and briefs, and are successful with it (think Martin Paar and his backstage shots of fashion shows). Most thinking photographers though divide their time for commercial (editorial, advertising etc) and personal work. We do usually care and remember them for the personal (anyone interested in Diane Arbus’ fashion shoots? Or Frank’s ? Or Winogrand’s photojournalism? Thought so .)
.
.
I guess what I am trying to say, you have to know what you are getting into, and you want to achieve with it. Don’t expect your personal vision being appreciated in food photography circles (despite all the ‘vision’ talk online), just go and shoot food after you paid your rent with that dirty money from you local Italian restaurant.
.
