Irving Penn, Turkey Neck, 2003
I hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving! It seems appropriate that we think about food at the start of the holiday season, and the idea that photographing food is an art form. There is a long history of photographing food for commercial advertising. The following NPR article outlines a current evolution in food photography, in which more people are becoming engaged with the aesthetics of food. Compare the images in the NPR slideshow to an exhibition of food-related subjects by art photographers at the Robert Mann Gallery and “food portraits” by Irving Penn, an acclaimed portrait photographer. What do you think of Food Photography?
NPR’s “Appetizing Art of Food Photography”
Robert Mann Gallery’s exhibit “Food For Thought”
A few examples of Irving Penn’s Food Portraits
The DUE DATE to submit your blog posts for this topic is Sunday, December 15th.
I think food photography is cool. We see it and take photographs of food all the time. When you go to a fancy restaurant or prepare your favorite dish, people take a picture of it and post it on social networks such as instagram, facebook, etc. We are surrounded by food photography everyday.
Art photography is a great source of advertising I have many friends that are bakers that takes pictures of their work and then puts it on social networks so people can know about them and their business. All of them received great business from doing it . But if I must add when people just started posting unnecessary pictures of them at mcdonalds or burger kings it takes away from the art . everyone knows what a bigmac and a whopper looks like .
food photography is one of the greatest things that has been brought up. for instants on instagram people take pictures of everything on instagram. they take pictures of food and make it look so good to a point that i want to try the food. the art of food photography is great as well, another example i take pictures of my mother cakes, the advertising helps because not only do they like the presentation it helps us get some side money.
It is very hard to define art. I think NPR’s slideshow is more likely food photography. The pictures in NPR can make people want to eat the food. Those pictures can present the taste and smell by using two dimensional photograph. It required photography techniques such as manipulate the light and angle to achieve the goal. Irving Penn and Robert Mann’s pictures are more artistic. Those pictures are staged and edited which are interesting and fun to look at. I personally like NPR’s slideshow more than the other two.
Food photography is a form of art. People who take pictures of food is because it looks fancy. Photographing food for a commercial is a great way to promote a new dish. Most of these pictures a just making food into art. The way the food is set up makes it look more like art.
Photographing food is ONLY a art when there is a specific type of form. Like for example, the image of a pepper that you displayed for us a few weeks ago. A few students did not know what it was, which I think is a good idea because it can make ones imagination go wild. Another thing with people photographing food, they are all just caught up the excitement because all of these food networks are becoming more popular now, so people are obsessed with cooking lavish meals that pertains bright color and form and then posting on social media. I prefer my food to be in one place. In my mouth.
When I think of the idea of food photography I automatically think of advertising that is manipulated drastically. Thinking of food photography McDonalds comes to mind right away; in commercials they show the perfect burger and fries which is never the same when you really buy it. The deception sucks but the advertising side of it is great thinking on the company’s behalf. After seeing the other side of food photography through the slideshows of the Robert Mann, Irving Penn, and the NPR I can see the more artistic side and reasoning for food photography. This class of photography stands directly aside the notion that photography is art. Many of the portraits are mistaken for paintings due to positioning of the food giving a sense that it is high art
I think food photography is a great way to just capture the moment you spend the time eating or if it’s like with friends or family. Food photography can be seen as like when someone is cooking. You are creating art and your final touch is serving the food you created into a plate to be served. Art just comes and goes same thing with food. It is art in the making and I’m guessing people take these photographs to jut capture the moment of food and just use it as art.