"Food Porn"

I just got off the phone with an old friend, and the conversation turned to photography. I mentioned that I, along with others I know, used our cameras for "food porn" as much as for anything else. He had no idea what that term meant - he thought it might have something to do with naked women having dinner. He's a pretty sophisticated East Coast guy, with homes in Princeton NJ (where he works - they have a university there, kind of like a cheap East Coast imitation of Northwestern), Manhattan, and Bridgehampton Long Island.

So, is the term "food porn" only a Chicago/Midwestern thing, or is he just clueless?

nr706 wrote:So, is the term "food porn" only a Chicago/Midwestern thing, or is he just clueless?

There's a foodporn.com and the quoted phrase returns over half a million google hits. I'd say he's clueless.

Best,
Michael

I think you first have to ask yourself how much of a foodie he is, and whether he's a heavy internet user. I'm sure there are a lot of similar terms of art used in other kinds of online communities, but those of us who have no interest in the subject (or even those of us who are interested in the subject, but not active in related online communities*) would be oblivious to the terms.

For example, I'm a bit of a travel fanatic, and participate in one of the bigger travel forums. Two popular terms are "gate lice" and "mile run/mileage run." But I have friends who travel more than I do and family members in the travel industry who aren't familiar with the terms. I don't think it has much to do with sophistication, and more to do with personal interests.


*I mention online communities because, at least in the case of food porn, it is a phrase that seems to have been coined within online food communities. Even if the practice is one that people are familiar with, they may not know that term to describe it. I've drooled over food pictures in Gourmet, Food & Wine, etc., for years, but pre-Internet I never called it food porn.

See also Debbie Does Salad: The Food Network at the Frontiers of Pornography, a 2005 piece from Harper's which was discussed on LTH when it was published.

chgoeditor wrote:I think you first have to ask yourself how much of a foodie he is, and whether he's a heavy internet user. I'm sure there are a lot of similar terms of art used in other kinds of online communities, but those of us who have no interest in the subject (or even those of us who are interested in the subject, but not active in related online communities*) would be oblivious to the terms.

I agree with chgoeditor. I think the use of the term "food porn" is more a matter of community than region of the country. I've met plenty of people surprised by and unfamiliar with the term, but this naievte, if you will, seemed to be determined more by their proximity to "foodies" than where they live.

germuska wrote:See also Debbie Does Salad: The Food Network at the Frontiers of Pornography, a 2005 piece from Harper's which was discussed on LTH when it was published.

The reference to Harper's actually made me think of my first application of the term "food porn." One of the most clever Harper's covers in my memory featured a photograph by Chicago-based artist Jeanne Dunning. It ran on the March 2000 issue, and the image was Sundae 1, which shows a profile of a person lying down, his or her face covered with whipped cream and a cherry. The image was actually tied to an article about obesity among working-class immigrants, but considered alone, the image could be read as highly sexual, especially considering Dunning's <i>oeuvre</i> which consists of multiple series of work in which food is manipulated and shot to resemble sexual organs and fluids. In short, I first used "food porn" to describe Dunning's work, which I guess was almost 10 years before I'd use the term to describe the kind of luscious food photography at which LTHers so excel. I've never read any scholarship or memorable criticism of Dunning, but I imagine I'm far, far from the first person to evoke this term in discussion of her photographs.