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Bloggers Photograph Food, We Get Hungry

by Amar Toor on April 7, 2010 at 05:25 PM

As growing numbers of people upload photos of nearly everything they eat, broadcasting breakfast and documenting dinner has become the trend du jour across social networks and blogs. As the New York Times reports, it's not just foodies or gourmands that flood Flickr with photos of their flambés.

Neuroscientist Javier Garcia, for example, decided to begin documenting his diet after losing 80 pounds, and now meticulously uploads food photos to his Web site as a way to hold himself accountable. Nora Sherman, meanwhile, began posting artistic shots of her meals on her blog, and now finds that her aesthetic impulse has compelled her to seek out more exotic, "photogenic" foods. And this quasi-compulsive behavior appears to be spreading like E. coli. A Flickr group called 'I Ate This,' features over 300,000 photos and 19,000 members. Similar foodocumentary communities have sprouted up on Facebook, Twitter, and specialized sites like ChowHound.

So, why the sudden surge in comestible collages? Psychotherapists believe that it's just another way for people to document and catalog a uniquely and subconsciously intrinsic part of their personalities. As psychiatrist Katherine Zerbe explains, "In the unconscious mind, food equals love because food is our deepest and earliest connection with our caretaker." Having come up with a more aesthetic reason, Web site developer and food photographer Carl Rosenberg says the multi-sensory quality of food distinguishes a photo of a cheeseburger from a pic of a cheesy smile.

But what does this mean for those of us on the other side of the screen? Why do so many people have an interest in consuming photos of what other people are consuming? Voyeuristic desires may play some role, but we think it may have more to do with sheer boredom. Food does seem, though, to speak some sort of universal language that completely strips away the artifice, and allows the rest of us to see something truly genuine about another person -- even if it's only one crumb at a time. [From: NYT]

Tags: blogs, flickr, food, iatethis, internet, photoblogging, photos, photosharing, socialnetworking, top, web

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