The Food Photography Craze that is taking Over One Instagram Story at a Time
A disclaimer before I even begin this article: I AM GUILTY OF THIS TREND (as you can observe from the above picture). The trend which I am referring to is taking (multiple) pictures of food. I spend far too much time setting up the perfect setting for a picture – usually of an aesthetically pleasing cappuccino or avocado toast – toggling between various filters, choosing from one to three stickers to add to my picture, creating puns as captions, and selecting a color scheme for, like I said, a picture of a $4 coffee.
My question is: why do I do this? Why do so many people, from high schoolers to senior college students to women living in New York City or San Francisco, spend such an elaborate amount of time on their phones creating a persona on their social media feed that paints their life as fun-loving, easy-going, and pain-free? Many have written articles and essays on this particular philosophical question, so I am going to focus my thesis on why food photography has become the number-one-hobby for us post-millennials.
On a particular morning a year ago, I came across an article in The Boston Globe called “Instagram is ruining food, and I might be the only one who cares” by Devra First. The article particularly caught my attention after I spent a laborious five minutes composing the perfect picture of my toasted everything bagel with cream cheese, lox, tomatoes, and red onions. Guilty is charged! First makes the argument that this food photography sensation, which began in 2010 with the launch of Instagram, has stolen our taste buds. She refers to this phenomenon as the “Instagram effect” and sights Chef Chris Coombs opening of the second branch of his South End steakhouse, Boston Chops, as a hyperbole of this trend. Combs new restaurant will have special lighting specifically for food photography so customers can take perfect photographs of their meal. He says in the article that “there are nights when more than half the people in the dining room are taking pictures.” This statistic saddens me because shouldn’t food be about the taste and not the picture? First ends her article with her desire to eat real food that may not be instagramable, but is, in the end, delicious – and perhaps better than your 97th avocado toast.
One would think reading this article would alter my perspective, but it slipped from my mind and here I am with two Instagram accounts: one for my personal everyday life and the other specifically oriented towards healthy food ideas for college students. While I take photos of landscapes, friends, and artwork, my passion – or perhaps obsession – with food photography has reigned supreme over the past several years so that it has seeped its way into my friends’ and family’s lives. Sometimes, I will force my friends to wait to devour their delicious-looking panini so I can capture a perfect birds-eye view photo of our lunch. This may not be so scandalous several hours later when my friends are appreciative of my documentation of our adventure, but in retrospect, it appears to be an unhealthy habit. For that reason, I chose only to document my own food so that others can dive right in – while I spend time setting up a photo shoot in the middle of a cafe.
So, I return to my original question: why am I enamored with this act? I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to travel to New York City with my friend whose aunt has an apartment in midtown which she let us stay in for a night. As any foodie would do, I took photos and gifs of my meals and the environment of the restaurants themselves. I have to admit that I was a little embarrassed as I snapped photos in Jack Wife’s Friday of my avocado toast with salmon and a poached egg. Not to mention just writing that sentence makes me realize how privileged I am to be able to afford this (*cough cough* overpriced) meal and to make it worse, by posting it to my Instagram I am rubbing this experience into other people’s noses.
It was for this exact reason that I went on a social media cleanse my junior year of high school: not posting story updates to my Instagram or Snapchat and hardly tagging people in my photos so that I wouldn’t make anyone feel left out. After going through a rough year of feeling left out, among other things, I was determined to never make anyone feel the way I felt. But fastword three years I am doing the opposite of what I intended to do.
Or am I?
I no longer post to my Instagram to prove to my followers that I have a life and am leading a perfect, happy college experience because first of all, this is false. Second of all, I view the posting experience as a stress-relieving distraction from homework and studying and a way to express myself online. I do it for me and only me: making dumb puns that no one will probably laugh at and making a photo of oatmeal as aesthetically pleasing as I can to my own enjoyment.
Of course, it feels amazing when people compliment my photos. I hope I am inspiring people with food ideas, not bragging about my meals. However, in this age of social media, I think it is important to remember why you have a presence on the Internet and what purpose it serves for you. Once you discover this purpose on your own, you can have a social media presence without worrying about what others will think of your photos because remember it is your account.
My advice: care less and photograph more.