Foodie friends, I received an email today from Food & Wine magazine that I want to share with you.
Dear Food & Wine Reader,
Not long after the invention of photography in the early 19th century, photographers began training their lenses on food. As part of a yearlong celebration of Food & Wine’s 40th anniversary, we’ve gathered 40 milestone moments in food photography. Chefs, historians, and photographers all gave their input for this collection. Some of these photos capture the zeitgeist of their culinary era; others sparked dining trends—and some even changed the course of history. From diplomatic dinners abroad to the Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins, from behind-the-scenes moments on set with Julia Child to the nascent days of social media latte art—here are the photographs that have forever altered how we perceive food and food culture in America.
Food & Wine Editors
If you’re interested in food, food history, food photography or just cultural history in general, I encourage you to click on the links and view the photos with their short stories. As a teaser, I’ve included a couple below.
I love this picture of Julia Child on the set of her TV show, taken by her husband. As the story notes, it illustrates just how much goes on behind the scenes of a cooking show.
The one below is from 1910 – can you believe it? The article describes the difficult process that the photographer (artist!) undertook in the developing and printing process to get this final product. I don’t know much about photography (yet), but even I can see how the dots on the photo connect all of the elements in this still life.
The next one is from McCall’s magazine in 1943, called Lemonade and Fruit Salad. I love how stylized it is, right down to the use of the leaf-shaped napkin rings to anchor the fruit. I’d like to recreate that look sometime for a luncheon or afternoon tea (if I had those kinds of parties; maybe I’ll start).
Source: 40 photographs that changed the way we eat. Check it out!
And also, the current issue of Food & Wine is all about food and photography. It is excellent! They turned photographers loose for a large segment called “Cooks and Shooters” and the stories and photos are wonderful. The recipes are all from these articles by the photographers, and it is cool to “see” the world of food through their eyes.
And finally, because there are still a few more days in February, National Haiku Writing Month (NaHaiWriMo), here’s a haiku for all of those venerable food photographers.
portrait, still life or
action shot – delectable!
here’s looking at food
© 2018 Glover Gardens
Wow! They sure stretched the meanings of about half the pictures and photographers’ intents.
Yes, some of them were not as worthy as others. For me, the latte and the meat dress photos just didn’t rise to the level of the ones I posted, or the Nixon one (love it!), the lunch counter protest or the still life with foul. Or the Betty Crocker reference…so many things that are so iconic to cooks. But I realized upon reflection that allure in many of the photos is the food styling, like the Lemonade and Fruit Salad one in my post. It is surprising that food styling didn’t get mentioned. By the way, I looked at your blog for food pictures when I was considering this post, since you are the photographer I follow the most, and I was blown away by several of your photos. I particularly loved the tomatoes here: https://raylaskowitz.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/abqv021.jpg?w=840 . And it is cool that you can order prints at https://www.art.com/gallery/id–a21763-b27339/ray-laskowitz-fruits-posters.htm?ui=8AAA84CF5E024276ABDE1808BDF1D289 . I wanted to put some of your photos in the blog but couldn’t figure out how to do it with the Food & Wine post.
It wasn’t that the pictures weren’t worthy. It’s that they were never intended to be to food pictures. I could go through them individually, but as an example I’d pick Ashley Gilbertson’s picture of a stylized cup of coffee. Knowing Ash, he’d probably have stopped in for a cup of coffee and a smoke. He’s a hardcore photojournalist who covers war and all the general misery in the world.
For every food picture it’s about styling. If the current generation of Instagram Food photographers ever learned what it takes to really photograph food, they give up in a minute.
The best thing about that tomato picture is that we grew them, I photographed them and most were turned into truly homemade red gravy, as we say in New Orleans. We even grew the fresh herbs used to season it.
It’s starting out to be that kind of week. Legal issues everywhere. Art.com shouldn’t be selling any of my work still. That relationship ended years ago.
Oh well.
Hmm. WordPress is up to its old tricks… It’s not a question of worthiness. It’s a question of were most of the pictures even food pictures. Real food photographers take a huge amount of time styling the picture. They usually use a food stylist and a couple of assistants. Most of the images were not even produced as food pictures… an example, Ashely Gilbertson’s decorated coffee picture. Ash would be surprised to learn that he is a food photographer. Knowing him, he probably stopped into a coffee house for a coffee and a smoke. He is a hard core photojournalist of note. He photographs wars and other human misery.
My pictures. The tomato picture… I’m happy that we grew those tomatoes in our home garden along with many herbs and other veggies and fruits. I photographed them for one of my agencies and musical miss turned them into red gravy.
This week has been bogged down with every kind of legal issue. Seeing those pictures on art.com added to the list. They haven’t repped me in at least four years. They shouldn’t be licensing them… and not paying me.
Love your insights; they fall into the category of “what the professional knows…” Sorry to be the bearer of bad news about the art.com debacle. The tomato (and how good I imagine that red gravy must have tasted)…yum.
It’s more like what somebody who’s been doing it a long time knows… there’s the start of a huge crop of tomatoes right now. At least the strawberry stealing dogs don’t eat them.
I also really liked the strawberry pictures.
I did a whole collection of fruit in that style. The usually get licensed to restaurants.
But I especially liked the Georgia O’Keefe-style one…or is that an uninformed comment?
I don’t know. 🙂 She’s long been one of the artists who has influenced me the most. Her, Degas and Van Gogh. Today’s Storyteller is pretty O’Keefe influenced.
I looked at it and loved it. Wow.
For anyone who is following these comments, here is the link to today’s Storyteller post that Ray L. referenced: https://laskowitzpictures.org/2018/03/04/on-another-sunday/ .
Thanks so much for sharing this, love the photos. I just received my Food and Wine magazine and now I can’t wait to read it!
It’s a really good issue! The “Not Tiramisu” dessert in the back looks awesome, and I really enjoyed the panel / roundtable interview article about food photography. Come back and let me know what you think!