Always on My Mind...But Not Always in My Agenda For most of us, relationships serve as a major tenant of our lives. We strive for companionship - platonic or romantic - rearrange schedules to maintain the ones we do have, and work long hours to sustain family members or bank accounts (which ultimately provide the affordability to spend time with loved ones). Much of our socializing often revolves around food, whether it’s a shared family meal, coffee with a professor, or scouring the liquor aisle at the corner bodega on a late night with close friends. Food and love seem to be comprised of a base language almost everyone seems to understand. But in a world as fast-paced as ours, finding the time to fuel both has become a challenging undertaking. In fact, a 2018 Bureau of Labor Statistics report noted that Americans spend just over an hour on average taking the time to eat and drink during each workday, and spending close to an hour and 15 minutes of each weekend day on food consumption. It would appear that our society’s relationship with food has waned under the pressures of work, school, and other obligations. The following photo series aims to showcase a week’s worth of ‘food scenes’ in their most authentic form, at all times of the day. In some instances, the practice of dining is done thoughtfully and intentionally, while at other times, it’s simply a biological necessity. 5:00 p.m. on a Friday: “The Golden Hour” - For many working Americans, going out for a coffee usually means going out to grab it from the nearest Starbucks, only to take it back to the office. In Sweden, the practice of “fika” or “coffee break” is just that - a dedicated break from work and other activity to sit still, enjoy a hot beverage, and simply just be. 2:00 p.m. on a Saturday: On those rare nights out, it’s nice to take an Instagrammable picture of a really good meal. Although it’s easy for people - especially Millennials and Gen X-ers - to spend much of their disposable income on eating out, it can be justifiable. Eating out often means setting aside time for community and socializing. 7:30 p.m. on a Sunday: There’s a reason why they call it “culinary arts.” Much like a painting or a piece of music, the art of cooking and presentation requires creativity, diligence, and aesthetic flair - and of course, time. 9:00 a.m. on a Monday: Desk or dining table? For those working 9-5 positions, this sort of food setup is a familiar sight. Noon on a Monday: A rare shot of lunch not being eaten at a desk (not pictured: company laptop). It’s been reported that 50 percent of working Americans tend to eat lunch alone, and the 6 out of 10 choose to consumer theirs at their desks. That being said, there’s nothing quite like spending five whole minutes dedicated to lunching with a view of the Santa Barbara beaches. 7:00 p.m. on a Tuesday: Not everyone can be an Iron Chef every day of the week - unless that’s your day job, of course. Is the microwave the most fashionable way to go? No. But it is efficient. 2:30 p.m. on a Wednesday: Modern-day hunting and gathering. Perhaps one of the reasons why much of society doesn’t appreciate food is because it’s incredibly easy to obtain,. Our hunting grounds are Trader Joe’s, Costco, Albertsons, and the like, while our weapon of choice is credit or debit. 10:00 a.m. on a Thursday: A close-up shot of breakfast. With an early morning commute, team brainstorming sessions, and hundreds of training documents to work through, a small handful of nuts has to be enough sustenance for breakfast on the faster-paced days. 7:00 p.m. on a Thursday: Anything made from scratch is a labor of love. Food brings people together, and is quite arguably a universal language. It’s best prepared, eaten, and enjoyed in good company - the only thing sweeter than the donuts? Bringing a little bit of happiness to someone else’s palate.
It’s not uncommon to hear someone say, “I love food!” or “I’m a total foodie.” And why shouldn’t one be an enthusiastic foodie? There are certainly enough food trucks, microbreweries, fusion cuisine, and strange trends (i.e. charcoal ice cream) to confirm that love. But much like our relationships with our loved ones, using the L-word is easy to say yet harder to demonstrate, given how many things seem to drive our attention away. Eating is a necessity, yes, but at the risk of sounding cliche, it is also a way of life. It’s meant to be enjoyed and ideally, done in community - it certainly shouldn’t be an inconvenience or something ‘squeezed’ into a schedule. _____________________ Perhaps one of the most pivotal turning points for journalism, other than the introduction of the 24/7 news cycle, was the increased focus on multimedia storytelling. Gone are the days where writers are solely responsible for writing; they also have to shoot their own photos, edit videos and soundbytes, and leverage social media to distribute their stories. Mario R. Garcia, author of the Garcia Media article “Digital storytelling, Part One: The fusion of writing/editing/design,” describes this marriage of story writing and multimedia as “WED” (writing, editing, and design). Rather than photos being added on as an afterthought to a story, they are meant to complement and be woven into narratives, becoming “a real marriage, a dynamic fusion of writing and visual journalism,” Garcia writes. MediaShift writer Nicole Dahmen would agree with this point, stating that “The idea (of photojournalism) is to make images that matter to the specific story, rather than seeking visuals afterward that ‘fit’.” My photo story isn’t the type of cutting-edge photojournalism you might find from the archives of a war zone reporter or an Anderson Cooper memoir. My goal wasn’t necessarily to incite action or inspire change as far as how most of us tend to approach our eating habits; my aim was primarily to showcase honesty in my work (by showing a week’s worth of sporadic meals), while being informative about how and why I, and many other people as well, aren’t always intentional or thoughtful about taking the time to dine, or separating our eating from other parts of our schedules, like work time. As such, some of my photos like more ‘posed’ and artsy, and those tend to be the ones where I took the time to either pay someone else to make my coffee or meal for me, or put time in my schedule to cook for myself and others (note the photos of the “Golden Hour” coffee, the open-face sandwich, the meatballs, and the donuts baking in the oven). The other ones seem rather ordinary by comparison, and that is to demonstrate how mealtimes during the busier parts of my week are rushed and perhaps aren’t as thought through (note the grocery bags, the close-up of trail mix, the salad, and the tangerine peel). In short, this photo project was a food journal of sorts, with the intent of bringing to light how difficult it can be to separate an enjoyable, sustenance break in the day from everything else I may have going on in my life. But when I am able to dedicate more time to food preparation and consumption, or investing more time in myself by having someone else do the preparation, I feel more fulfilled, and it shows in the photography. In his essay “Multimedia Storytelling for Digital Communicators in a Multiplatform World,” author Seth Gitner writes about the growing need for consumers to share all the interesting visual imagery in their posts on social media; modern-day society’s own version of everyday visual storytelling. Because photography has become more accessible to the layperson, anyone can be a visual storyteller simply by owning a phone with a camera (Seth Gitner, 3 and 5). This is the sort of perspective I wanted to convey through my work. The pictures are decent, yes, but they also capture the everyday-ness of the environment surrounding the food. In Eman Shurbaji’s Medium article “Photo narratives: Defining picture stories, essays and packages,” he describes photo storytelling as something that is usually done in one perspective: “Unlike essays, a story doesn’t usually include multiple places or characters. Typically, it will focus the edit on one place character that serves as the connective theme in the entire photo presentation.” Furthermore, Shurbaji’s definition of what a photo story is compels me to categorize my own project as such. He writes, “A photo story is about one person, place or situation. It’s the most intimate of the aforementioned photo storytelling methods because it means the photographer is focusing on one character or scene, and letting viewers live through the photos.” In this case however, I would argue that I, the photographer, serve as the main character, even though I am featured in none of the photos. However, it is my eating schedule that is being highlighted. That is the connection between all the photos, even though the camera’s subject changes, as well as the location. Additionally, I believe the Gestalt principles come into play as all of the individual photos help represent the relationship between the average person and their food during the span of one week - it’d be a very different story if each photo on their own comprised the entire story. Carolann Bonner, author of Thoughtbot’s “Using Gestalt Principles for Natural Interactions,” describes the Gestalt theory as a term often associated with psychology that iterates that the sum of something is more significant than each part. In other words, viewers tend to visualize and categorize objects based on whether or not they share similarities, enclosure, continuation, closure, proximity, and figure-ground properties (Bonner, 2019). In the case of my photo story, the photos share similarities in that most of them are close-ups of the same subject (food), and represent continuation, as they are taken chronologically/throughout the course of a week. Some brief definitions of the Gestalt principles: Proximity involves placing objects’ positions closely together to form groups, while Similarity occurs when objects share the same colors, shapes, and other visual properties. Common Fate involves elements within a group changing together, and Figure/Ground Ambiguity refers to white space being used as a background. Lastly, Closure/Continuation occurs when viewers can mentally close the empty spaces and gaps between shapes (Ellen Lupton, 2017, p. 128). Lastly, Action Graphics’ article, “Worth 1,000 Words: The 4 Principles of Visual Storytelling,” challenges consumers of visual stories to think about what four elements of proper visual storytelling are at work. The four elements include authenticity, sensory, relevancy, and archetype. In my work, I strive for authenticity, making my food photos look as candid and ‘real’ as possible while also being good quality (for a camera phone). And because food is involved, the sensory pillar comes into play, as the food will tap into viewers’ senses, while relevancy occurs whenever viewers think to themselves, “I can relate to this” as they progress through the photo story. Bibliography Bonner, C. (2019). Using Gestalt Principles for Natural Interactions. Retrieved September 22, 2019, from https://thoughtbot.com/blog/gestalt-principles (MODULE 2) Dahmen, N. (2017). How to Do Better Visual Journalism for Solutions Stories. Retrieved September 22, 2019, from http://mediashift.org/2017/11/visually-reporting-solutions-stories-newsrooms-classrooms/ (MODULE 4) Garcia, M.R. (2017). Digital storytelling, Part One: The fusion of writing/editing/design. Retrieved September 22, 2019, from https://www.garciamedia.com/blog/digital_storytelling_part_one_the_fusion_of_writing_editing_design/ (MODULE 4) Gitner, Seth (2015). What Ways Do We Think about Visual Storytelling Every Day. Multimedia Storytelling for Digital Communicators in Multiplatform World (1st ed., pp. 3-5). Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge Publishing. (MODULE 1) Lupton, E. (2017). Design is Storytelling (p. 128). New York, NY: Cooper Hewitt. (MODULE 2) Shurbaji, E. (2014). Photo narratives: Defining picture stories, essays and packages. Retrieved September 22, 2019, from https://medium.com/learning-journalism-tech/photo-narratives-d77b812f99dd (MODULE 4) Time spent in primary activities and percent of the civilian population engaging in each activity, averages per day on weekdays and weekends, 2018 annual averages. Retrieved September 21, 2019, from https://www.bls.gov/news.release/atus.t02.htm Worth 1,000 Words: The 4 Principles of Visual Storytelling. Retrieved September 22, 2019, from https://actiongraphicsnj.com/blog/4-principles-visual-storytelling/ (MODULE 1)
2 Comments
9/25/2019 01:14:21 pm
Caitlin, nice work on the photo essay. The idea of showing your food journey was interesting and extremely topical to our current social media climate/ food sharing phase. Each of the images were real and provided an honest look at what everyday eating/ drinking is is. I appreciated that your images were honest and raw unlike so many images that we see on Instagram or Facebook. Upon further review of your images, I felt that the captions added to their story, They provided the time and day and bit of humor of what was happening. I laughed when I saw the image of the the dirty coffee and the clementine peel on the desk because that looks exactly like my desk right now.
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9/29/2019 03:18:59 pm
Hi Caitlin,
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