I was reading a article in The New York Times called "First Camera, Then Fork." I sparked my attention because of the camera part and I like cameras so I began reading it thinking it was probably dumb, but I couldn't stop reading it LOL it was so crazy and something I hadn't heard of ever. The article goes something like this I am only going to paraphrase it but if you want to read the whole article I'm sure if you just search the title it should come up. Anyhow there is a guy named Javier Garcia who is a neuroscientist at the University of California, Irvine, who was sitting at the campus pub recently having a grilled cheese sandwich. But before he took a bite of it he snapped a digital picture of it, cheese artistically oozing between toasted white bread, just has he has photographed EVERYTHING he as eaten in the past 5 years.
(oh my that is just crazy to me!!)
Every other week he posts photos on the website, ejavi.com/javidiet, providing a strangely intimate and unedited view of his life and attracting fans as far away as Ecuador. The nearly 9,000 photos leave nothing out, not even snacks as small as a single square of shredded wheat.
When he lost his iPhone while visiting NY last month, he pleaded with exasperated friends to take pictures of his food and to e-mail them to him, lest his record be incomplete. "It was a nightmare," Mr. Garcia said, particularly because the unfocused pictures "were not the quality I'm used to,"
In 1825 the French philosopher and gourmand Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote, "Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are." Today, people are showing the world what they eat by photographing every meal, revealing themselves perhaps more vividly than they might by merely reciting the names of appetizers and entrees.
Keeping a photographic food diary is a growing phenomenon with everything from truffle-stuffed suckling pig to humble bowls of Cheerios being captured and offered for public consumption. Indeed, the number of pictures tagged "food" on the photo-sharing website Flickr has increased tenfold to more than 6 million in the last 2 years, according to Tara Kirchner, the company's marketing director. One of the largest most active Flickr groups, called "I Ate This" includes more than 300,000 photos that have been contributed by more than 19,000 members. There would be more, but members are limited to 50 photos a month. The same phenomenon can be found on other sites like Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Foodspotting, Shutterfly, Chowhound and FoodCandy.
"It used to turn heads if you took a picture of your food, and even I got in trouble if you did that at a few restaurants," he said. "Now it's ubiquitous and just shows that we are in a spastic food era -- we couldn't get more obsessive."
This bemuses Tucker Shaw, the food critic for the Denver Post, who made do with a basic point-and-shoot digital camera to take pictures of everything he ate in 2004; he published the photos in his book, "Everything I Ate: A Year in the Life of My Mouth."
Nonetheless Mr. Shaw said the year he spent photographing his food (and a year was enough for him) resulted in the achingly honest account of his life that revealed far more than the fact that he ate too few leafy green vegetables: "The pictures, I realize now, are incredibly personal, and by looking at them you can probably deduce the type of person I am." Moreover, the pictures set off memories and emotions in a way a written journal could not. "I remember every single day, who I was with, what I was feeling," he said.
Unlike a picture of a flower or friend, a picture of a meal recalls something smelled, touched, tasted and ultimately ingested.
When I finished reading this article (I didn't include all the article only bits and pieces) I was in amazement. I didn't really know what to think as I had never heard of anybody taking pics of their food nor had I seen anyone do it. The amount of dedication it would take to take pictures of everything I ate in a year would be enormous!! I think that photographing your food can become pathological if it interferes with careers or relationships or there's anxiety associated with not doing it, it becomes more than just a silly past time, you become obsessive-compulsive to me that's not worth it. Most days now almost every phone comes with a camera making it easier and faster to take the pictures, no one notices really if you quickly snap a picture of your food. I say if it doesn't become your highest priority then I don't see anything wrong with it but when it comes to the point where if you ever forget your camera and your at a restaurant and you have to leave just to go get your camera before you can eat your food that's when it becomes a problem in my eyes...LOL
So I am going to challenge myself this coming week starting tomorrow the 12th and going until next Monday the 19th. I am going to take pictures of everything I eat just too see what its like to keep up a habit like that. It's not going to be easy but I think I am up for a little challenge and if any of you want to do the same just for fun go ahead. Let me know if you do!! Wish me luck, i'm sure you will see my food posts during the coming days!!
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