Photo Story and Food

What is the most important thing in your life? For me it is looking at interesting photography and collecting photo books. For my wife it's food. When you combine the two together we have food photography and sometimes cook books with great photography. Recently we found a great book in a used book store that had both, "Memories with Food at Gipsy House" by Felicity & Roald Dahl with photographs by Jan Baldwin (Viking 1991).

This book had both fascinating photography and recipes along with interesting stories about the authors' family life. The photographs were not the typical commercial food shots, but wonderfully arranged foods in settings that made for attractive imagery while at the same time helping to illustrate the stories and recipes. A complete aesthetic experience.

On the other hand, there is "serious food photography!" These are photographs of food as objects or models. Sort of like fashion photography. These photos are designed to make you hungry. You sit there drooling over this amazing photograph of mouth watering food and wonder if it tastes as good as it looks. Now I know from past experience, photographing food is both an art and a craft while at the same time a complete fake.

What I mean, is that there is great skill in preparing the food to be photographed, staged, styled, and lit. The fake part comes from the fact that the food is prepared just to be photographed and not eaten. As a matter of fact, you do not even want to nibble on it unless you want a mouthful of chemicals used to make it all look good. Check out this interesting food photo video.

My preference for food photography is the type used to illustrate the Dahl book. I will be keeping my eye out for more of these books.

Stealth photography

Stealth - I have been thinking about all my photographs that have not been seen by anyone. Or my wife's photographs that have not been seen by anyone but me. What happens when your photography is not seen by anyone but yourself? Is this like that old question: "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it make a sound?" If you do not show your photography to anyone, does it really exist or have value?

Ok, so now we are thinking about why make photography or art to begin with? The obvious answer; we can not help ourselves. We have this urge to create that picture. We feel that if we don't create that image, something will be terribly missing from our lives. It becomes more important to create than to share it with anyone. Those of us who spend our waking hours (and much of our sleep) thinking about that next creation are walking the fine line between genius and egotist. (More about this later, perhaps.)

Not to mention the aesthetics of that all important creation. We do make critical choices in that process of creating the picture that brings all our experience and talent to bear. Then the decision of selection and editing. Which picture to champion and hold out as the "best" of the series.

Then, why do some of us never display these images? Or more accurately, do we hold back until we have the confidence to bear our souls to the public?

Photobooks worth keeping

How do you know what photobooks to keep and which ones to take down to your local used book shop? I have been thinking about this as my bookshelves have lost space to add anymore. I know, many of you are thinking, just add more bookshelves. Yes, that is doable, and most likely I will do that. But it did start me thinking.

It is not easy to pull a book off the shelf and decide that there is no value anymore (to me). Why did I buy it in the first place? It must of meant something at the time. Someone put time and energy into creating the book. I have always been a believer in the passion that is behind every work of art, including photobooks. At the time that I acquired the book, there where very good reasons for making this decision. This train of thought has lead me to the inevitable list, "top 10 reason to buy or keep a photobook."

The top ten reasons to buy (or keep) a book:
10. It was a good buy or its a first edition.
9. It will increase in value over time.
8. It is rare and not many copies are left in circulation.
7. It appears on some list of top 100 important photography books.
6. It is included in The Book of 101 Books edited by Andrew Roth.
5. It is included in either volumes I or II of The Photobook: A History by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger.
4. It is a perfect specimen of a photobook and comprises all that is key to a great book; wonderful photos, sequenced with intelligence, and is beautifully printed.
3. You learn something new or gain new insights about life and art every time you look it.
2. You are the author/creator of the book.
1. You truly love this book.

Feel free to create your own top ten reasons for keeping a book.