Photographic Food Diaries: Too Much Information
The recipe for the dressing is a secret
What I Ate by Kitty Kaufman
Last Wednesday there was an exciting feature in the New York Times food section. It's all about people who are taking pictures of what they eat. You can't see online but in print it covered nearly the whole front page, with art, and it was the second most emailed feature for two days. I'm telling you right now; don't look at it if you're the least bit hungry: "First Camera, Then Fork."Kate Murphy, the writer, found lots of people who before they take a single bite of anything, take a picture. They post them in photographic food diaries. And it's not just one amazing dinner. Some albums run to thousands of meals.
Obviously they aren't hungry and apparently their friends are patient and no one cares if the food is hot when they get to the eating part. Ms. Murphy thinks the photos provide "a strangely intimate and unedited view" of someone's life. One of the people she interviewed, who is 28 and a neuroscientist, has fans "from as far away as Ecuador." He lives in California. A 36 year-old Texas woman says her husband "is resigned" to her hobby that began when she wanted to show her mother what she ate on vacation. I wonder if her mother thought this was too much information.
I never think something I'm about to eat belongs online forever. Those Boston lettuce salads get raves at the table but no one ever says, "Hey, this looks so good, let's take a picture and throw it up on your website." And if someone made that comment what I would say is, maybe, "Who cares what I'm eating?" or "Yes, roast chicken looks great but it's going to get cold while we fiddle with the lighting." Besides, the recipe for the salad dressing is a secret.
If you follow me on Twitter, I will not be sending a photo of what I'm eating. My marketing colleague, Dilusha De Tissera http://twitter.com/Dilusha9h says I need to use Twitter so people will find out about me. She insists they will start following me. I took a walk last night and when I got to the corner I turned around. She has lots of work ahead of her.
© April 12, 2010
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