Every bite

When I announced that I'd be blogging daily this month in honor of NaBloPoMo, a reader named Lena requested a post about what I eat on a given day. Lena, this one's for you. 

Today over on Instagram I'll be posting photos of what I eat. All of it, in real time. Then, tonight, I'll collect some (or all?) (the best of?) (we'll see.) the images and put them up here as a kind of photo journal of the day. I'm @sweetamandine on Instagram, and you can follow along there or, if you don't have an account, right here.

This exercise is out of my comfort zone because I don't typically make photos of food to "document" it. (Aside from some of the shots on this site that I make to illustrate recipes, of course.) We seem to have much more trouble understanding photography as a representational medium than we do, say,  painting or sculpture. But when we pick up our cameras and snap away, we don't capture life as it is. What we get is an approximation, a representation. What we make is art. As Gary Winogrand famously said, "I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed." We're not collecting moments when we go out into the world with our cameras. We're making something of them.

When I photograph my food, it's because something's grabbed me. Often, it's that I've seen something that somehow matches what I'm feeling, and thereby draws my attention to that feeling. Sometimes I just think something's pretty. There's so much visual appeal in the moments of everyday life. A lunch on the table amidst papers and notes, a pizza place at closing time, a messy countertop, the people I love. I am not so moved by every bite I eat, so today will be interesting for me and, I suspect, a challenge.

There have been all kinds of critical and funny things written about people snapping photos of their food, and with their cell phones, no less. There are some fairly terrifying food photographs to be found on Instagram, for sure - some of those filters, ouch! - but there's also a lot of beauty. All judgement aside, I think it's fascinating that so many of us feel compelled to photograph what we eat and share it with the world.

I'm curious:  If you photograph your food, why do you do it? What does it mean to you? I'd truly love to know.

See you over on Instagram today, I hope, and back here tonight.

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[With thanks to Tom Roma, for so much inspiration]