Look Up!

Sometimes the story is hidden in the details. You just have to find the right protagonist.

Honestly, I have always been a little hesitant about taking pretty pictures of food. I mean, I love all the different shapes and colors. And I am amazed by the variety and the wonderful ideas of those who came up with the recipes.

But somehow it always felt like cheating to stage the ‘look and feel’ of a dish in order to showcase my work on it more. Like the expert photographer I got to know during my time in college. He had specialized in two areas that I could not really relate to each other at first. Until I watched him work. Yes, he photographed food. And of ‘Miss’ and ‘Mister’ contestants …. Well, let’s just say that a mixture of paint and starch looks a lot better on camera than the real gravy. Sad, but true.

So, yes, I was being a little stubborn here, because of course I saw the benefit of documenting the cooking process. In fact, this is something I really want to do more of, but a classic blog is just not a good medium for it. You kind of can’t see the forest for the trees if you overdo it. I mean, the orientation usually gets lost when you put in all the pictures needed for a thorough walk through the process. Also, it will seriously slow down the performance of the site. For this kind of documentation a book or a movie is better. I am working on that.

But then I recently discovered something interesting about how we look at food. This happened during a picnic to which I took the [‘Picalotta Fusion Salad’]. A really traditional garden party that friends of ours have every summer.

So I put the salad – which is a kind of fusion approach to typical Berlin food – in a big bowl and put it on the buffet. And then I watched the other guests as they gradually ate their way through the meal. And I realized that with this particular dish, the perspective on the food changed over the course of the event. First it was an assortment of appetizers arranged on a bouquet of lettuce. Then it became a hearty addition to the mellower dishes on offer. Finally, it was a salad with a spicy sauce. I could have photographed the three phases and it would have been a completely different view each time.

Aha, I thought. So the thing about taking pictures of food is a kind of transferal art process (big word, I know). It means that through the images I make of the food, I tell you what I want you to see in the big picture. This is something that even I can work with: I am taking pictures of food because I have something to say. That comes naturally with my illustrations, but now I am going to take a keen look through the lens and tell you about it.

It’s like creating a new meal just for the eyes after all the pans and pots have been cleared out. Fascinating. I’m really looking forward to that (…and just hope I get it all on camera before the goodies get cold and stale).

I could have photographed the three phases and it would have been a completely different view each time.

Side Notes:

• I was not trying to criticize the photographer above. It’s just a normal process. And he is a lovely person, not to mention a very skilled artist.