The Russian restaurant-owning oligarch hit London in 2014 and turned eating out into very conspicuous consumption. But being seen by other people in the restaurant was not enough. It became essential to Instagram pictures of your meal to all your friends, too. Food turned into a kind of deviant beauty contest, decoupled from most of the things that food used to be associated with – such as keeping you alive and healthy. Instead, it became another measure by which a judgment could be made. Taking pictures of what you are about to eat is like entering a very particular kind of competition. Please stop it.
For a start, good pictures of food are very hard to take. Usually the amateur version looks flaccid and congealed. This is because food needs careful lighting, rather than the blinding flash most phones come equipped with. Or no lighting at all, which probably means a tripod. The food itself needs to be a bit minimalist. Some photographers spray water over the plate for that just-out-of-the-oven glisten. And then it needs accessorising. OK, maybe not. But my point is that for food to look good in pictures it needs extreme care, time and imagination, not a mobile phone.
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