Is food photography the equivalent of intellectual porn?

Someone much cleverer that I once described food photography as “thinking woman’s porn” which is a phrase I adore.  When I first started this site I didn’t have any pictures of the food.  This was mainly because, if you have ever tried to photograph food, you will know that it is a really difficult thing to do well.  Unfortunately the first comment made by everyone that saw my site was “you need pictures” and they were right.  Having often found myself glassy eyed in a bookstore as I peruse the shelves of cookbooks on display, I understand the importance of good pictures. We eat with our eyes as much as our other senses and so it is important that our food looks as good as it tastes.  That being said it is much easier to make food appealing to the eye than it is to the lens.

 Since I have started taking food photographs I have discovered that the professionals use all manner of tricks to get the perfect shot.  They use mashed potatoes instead of ice cream to give them time to shoot without the ice cream melting.  They use the suds from dish soap to give bacon a just cooked appearance and then they break out the big guns with photo editing software.  Because I effectively photograph my dinner (or lunch or breakfast or whatever) I don’t go the potato ice cream route, which brings with it several challenges.  I’m quite sure that my husband would rather forget the day that I was trying to photography soufflés for a magazine article.  Suffice to say that it involved tears, burns, profanity and the making of several different soufflés to ensure a decent shot.  All that aside, I still love taking pictures of food and whilst some are better than others I persist.  If that makes me a peddler of “intellectual porn” then so be it.

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