鈥淭here is no love sincerer than the love of food鈥 鈥 George Bernard Shaw
Now I don鈥檛 know about you, but I鈥檓 with George here; I love food. There is nothing better than a good meal, especially when shared with friends and family. Food is a bridge that can bring people together, and has been the centre of many an historical event. But what about food photography? I鈥檓 sure we鈥檙e all aware of the endless stream on Instagram (over 155 million images and counting), but surely it must have more sophisticated origins?
We can鈥檛 really start with photography though, as food was the subject of many a painting in the centuries before photography was invented, even dating back to the Egyptians, Greeks and the Romans. As it still is today, food was a large part of life, and in many renaissance works it was a symbol of affluence; the more food a person had, the wealthier they were, and if you were wealthy enough, you would have a painting depicting the abundance of food that you could afford. Artists throughout history, from Da Vinci to Warhol, have used food to convey messages from religious symbolism to consumerism, to just simply painting what they loved.
So, when the first cameras were developed during the 19th century, did artists love of food develop too? Some of the first photos were still lifes of food, reminiscent of renaissance artwork. They were very simple in nature, but the technology was the real star of the show. As the technology developed to become more user friendly, it meant that photographers could be more creative, and became a factor to consider. In the 1930s when colour photography was first used for advertising, photographers realised that they weren鈥檛 just shooting food for foods sake, they were shooting it to inspire people to go out and buy this food, and eat it surrounded by loved ones; they were selling food as an experience. By the 1950s, your stereotypical family around the dining table, with big grins and dead eyes, was the go to style for many a food brand.
They say a picture paints a thousand words, and cookbook authors knew this to be true. They invested more time and money into making sure that the recipes that they were writing about were given the appropriate visual accompaniment. Even if the home cook wasn鈥檛 going to be able to replicate it.
Lets fast-forward to the early noughties, when blogging was seen as a hobby, especially food blogs. Little did people know that it could become a career, with some earning 6 figure sums from their work. Cooking and recipe development was no longer restricted to the professionals; anyone with a kitchen, ambition and passion could share their food and recipes with the world. But there was a catch, your images had to sell your food, because as far as the consumer was concerned, you were a nobody. Then came Instagram in 2010, when you could filter your images to appear dream like. Anyone who was anyone was taking pictures of their soggy sandwiches and calling themselves a food stylist.听听
So has food photography really developed? When you look at how it began, and the state of it now, it doesn鈥檛 look like it. But does that matter? No, because I won鈥檛 stop leafing through cookbooks, or reading food blogs, because my love for food is sincere.
So what about food as stock?
I’m not the only one who loves food; our customers do too. Food and food prep are regular听听that most photographers out there can achieve. From the European Bamberg Croissant, to the Asian Biang Biang Noodles, food from all over the world is always trending. It is听a prism to the world听after all. But it’s not just images of food we need, we want images of it being prepped and eaten too. So go on, go prepare a nice meal, invite your friends and family round, and have a great time. Oh and don’t forget to photograph it all!
听