Week 9: Food Photography

Food Photography is a delicate form of photography.  The image has to make the viewer desire and crave.  To imagine the flavor, smell and taste through a picture seems a bit impossible but the impossible is possible. Look at the image of fried ice cream. It's whipped topping with the the cereal crust already helps give you a sense of flavor and texture.   Does food photography have real food in it though? If this were done in a studio the whipped topping might be shaving cream, the cereal may still be real but the ice cream may have been some substitute that could mimic the texture without the melting.  This is the blending of two different art forms.  The culinary side of things with the photographic.  A cook considers himself an artist in the kitchen.  His or her palette creates works of art that are meant to be eaten.  The colors they decide may add a visual response that has the diner craving or salivating over the intense smell and sight.  Yes the ingredients add flavor and character but its the combination of them that makes the final piece of art.  The photographer sees texture and color and tries to bring that to the pages of the magazines so that the experience becomes visual.  For this reason I chose to make this picture above.  The texture is there.  Rough and smooth, colorful and pleasant.  This form of photography is a specialty and I'll be more than happy to let someone else make these wonderful picture.  I might eat the subject before it makes it to be my subject behind the lens.