The Alternative Press

The other night we were out to dinner with friends and I coined a new phrase. Or so I thought. After some teasing about how I take pictures of food, I declared myself proud to be a foodtographer. At home I went right online to see if anyone else had come up with this moniker. I thought I’d trademark it, buy the domain names and maybe set up a new blog that night.

I had just launched my food photography contest on my Westfield Foodie blog and was feeling very knowledgeable about my fledgling industry. I clearly don’t know jack and I’m certainly not ahead of the curve by any means here. Not only did someone else coin the phrase, foodtography has a thriving online presence, with a dedicated member groups and pages on flickr, facebook and foursquare, with numbers in the thousands. Who knew?

Marketers are catching on. Apparantly this is a huge branding opportunity. It makes sense – why shouldn’t  a restaurant plate have its logo in the photo, or a salad dressing be featured in a strategic product placement. Digital Marketing Agency 360i recently completed research studies on the psychology of what, why and when we photograph food. The psychology of foodtography.

They concluded the main reasons we photograph food are to document our lives, to celebrate the completion of a dish and because we see food as art. Also highly ranked reasons were to commemorate a special occasion, to keep a food diary, and to document extreme food. This is defined in the study as “unusual, unconventional creations” – I’m thinking fish heads, pig knuckles, live scorpions, that kind of stuff. 

Thirty years ago, Sting crooned about there being too many cameras and not enough food. I don’t think he considered a day when we would all have cell phones 24/7, with cameras built conveniently right in, and computers that make it so easy to manipulate and share photos. The study found that 52% of people take photos with their mobile phones, and another 19% upload those photos to the web. Between the explosive culinary trends like cooking shows, food festivals and farmers markets – and the growing obesity trend where we are just eating a lot more food – and the accessible technology and that’s a lot of food photos.

The study also looked at what people photograph and what they name their food photos. Veggies (17.8%) were neck in neck with Sweets/Desserts (18.3).  Amusing. Fruit was lumped into the “other” category with seafood, tofu, salad dressing and beans. Surprising.  The top five, in order, are dinner, food, breakfast, lunch and chicken. Chicken?

It all makes sense. Food looks good. It makes us feel good. If you have a horrible day you can still make a kick ass soufflé or roast. When things may not be good, they can still look good. When a dish comes out of the oven, it usually looks pretty perfect. For a moment, everything is as it should be. Food pictures are usually taken at that delicious cusp of between when a food is ready to serve, still in perfect symmetry and shape, and the moment the fork first dives into the canvas. That is, of course, why we cook and go to restaurants. To eat the food, that we only hope will taste as good as it looks.

Lauren Weiss is a food writer for Westfield Foodie, A Foodie State and JerseyBites.com. Contact her at westfieldfoodie@gmail.com and follow her on Facebook and Twitter. 

If you are a foodtographer and would like to check out Westfield Foodie’s contest, where winners win gift certificates to local restaurants and gourmet food shops, visit WestfieldFoodie.com. Winners will also be featured as a guest blogger on the site.