Fancy Like Cheap Grub is a collection of photographs and stop-motion animations that acknowledges and explores the deception created by food photography. Over the past few decades, there has been an increasing demand for fast, cheap food. This has resulted in an abundance of processed, chemically-synthesized, and artificial foods lacking in nutrients. Public focus has shifted to prioritize the convenience of food over the nutritional value, regardless of the health consequences. This has caused the consumption of food to move away from the traditional dining room setting to cars and other convenient places. The food industry has taken advantage of this trend explicitly by dedicating resources to marketing cheap, fast food.
Food photography and food advertising have accelerated this shift by producing an industry standard requiring food to always be visually appealing. They have done this with manipulation techniques that alter the appearance of the food through props or substitutes, rather than the actual food, to enhance the aesthetic appeal. For instance, shaving cream has been used instead of whipped cream to maintain the stiff peak look. This visually shifts our expectations, misrepresenting the reality of purchased processed foods.
Confronting this reality, this project explores the process of photographing cheap foods without using substitutes. All the food presented in this work was either purchased directly from fast food restaurants or grocery stores. Stop-motion animations depict the act of styling the real food to be aesthetically pleasing. The completely styled still photographs capture the uncanny results of food photography without substitution. The domestic formal dining room installation reflects on the impact that the visuals of food play in our everyday lives.
This installation challenges the food industry’s standards of using food substitutes to create aesthetically appealing food photographs. It further pushes the viewer to grapple with their perception of the foods and the images that they consume.
Stop-motion animation music composed by Duncan.
The duet is performed by Emily Ward and Duncan.