I agree that photographing food is an art form. I think the reason people photograph food so much besides the fact that cameras are now available on our phones wherever we go, we find the need to capture an art form that is only available for few moments of time. The plate right in front of us may be set up in a beautiful display that we want to photograph in order to have that display forever, because sooner or later we eat what is on our plate and the art of how the food was set up, is forever gone.
Food photography is an interesting concentration of photography in general. I think that the fact that food is manipulated in such horrific ways in order to make it look the way it should is typical of photography in general; just as people argue that a photo of a man being shot could have been staged, people can too argue that the color of the gravy on a particular photograph is not the real color of gravy b/c the photographer used something inedible in order to make it look that way. I would say that in the case of Food Photography, it is deceiving to manipulate photos in the way that food photographers do. If a photo of an ice cream with chocolate syrup is completely staged with powdered sugar mixed with shortening to make the “ice cream” and mashed potatoes on top with motor oil to make the “chocolate syrup” then it is not ice cream with chocolate syrup; it is powdered sugar, shortening, mashed potatoes, and yuck motor oil…
