there is no rhyme or reason to the photos i’ve picked this week, especially since almost everyone chose to move on to november’s theme, not that that is a bad thing - i’m just saying… and my first choice doesn’t even include a person, but i can feel her love with every squeezed orange. wouldn’t you love to start your day this way?
Sorry I’m a little lot late - I’m having computer issues.. like, I don’t have one… at all. I also have a pretty bad attitude in general today about food, so my pick seems pretty appropriate.
I figured I’ve already done my happy post about life on my own blog, so why not throw down my misery (related, of course - to photography) about food over here?
Well, in addition to having another chunk fall off my tooth this morning (that makes chunk number 4 - which means my root canal is just barely hanging in there by a thread) I woke to find an entire fridge of food.. spoiled.
It’s one thing to not be able to eat because the entire side of your face is throbbing and any bite you take might pull the rest of a tooth out… it’s another to find hundreds of dollars of groceries are gone because your dog can open the fridge.
Apparently my dog, Nathan - opened the refrigerator last night and ate an entire wedge of fine, aged bleu cheese - along with salami and a whole bunch of vegetables.
That being said - I had chosen my pick for the week “where’d the food go?” before any of this had happened. There is nothing to make you appreciate good food like a diet (or a thieving dog who has become to smart for his own good - and who now has the most GAWD awful breath on the planet).
Dress it up, mix it up - add a dash of that, or a pinch of this… It doesn’t matter what you do to your food, in the end it all comes down to the simple things.
All recipes and dishes start with ingredients, and some of the best treats Mother Earth has to offer are the most simple. I don’t know any packaged snack that can rival the flavor of a ripe berry or a crisp apple.
I loved Vanessa’s picture. It basically reflected back to me exactly the way I was feeling this week - some of the best things in life are free (or at least there for the picking!) Nature even looks healthy - seriously… look down below - it’s like zen berry on the mountain with seashore horizon. Now go look at a dorito or something. K - just not the same.
The pictures this month have actually inspired me to want to eat healthier. All the fruits and vegetables look so colorful, shiny - natural!!!
So I took Vanessa’s pic as a sort of toast to nature.
I read in the paper the other day a joke about a boy who thought he was a corn, and when he was released from the psychiatric hospital, he saw a chicken and ran away scared. His mother asked, but son, you’re cured, you no longer think you are a corn, do you? His answer: yeah, I know I’m not a corn, but does the chicken know?
This kept me thinking on what to write for today on the subject. The relationship people have with food is to me a cultural construction, mainly changed by the personal experiences each one has through out life. You learn how to relate with food - what is food - from your parents and family in your early years, and it changes as you grow and acquire new tastes, new desires, new hungers. Its important to understand what is a real need for nourishment, what is a desire and what is a hunger based on envy, lust or another reason.
As I look at the pictures, in order to choose which one to publish, I saw, in most a portrait of the western civilization, and our need to accomplish several tasks at the same time, to become more than ourselves in order to make things work with our multiple social groups. Some of the pictures reminded me of the time I lived in US, and all the different tasks and flavours I tried, and how it has helped me understand how different it was from my own, the culture I was experiencing. In Brasil, offering you food (and lots of it, and all the time) is a way of showing that you’re welcomed, you’re liked. We like to show off our cultural differences (this is a big country too, and with regions so distinct, one could think it’s a whole new country, with new language and all) by offering all kinds of food (meat, vegetables, salads, soups, loaves and baked stuff, not to mention desserts, candies, puddings) at the same time! It’s a way of reassuring the richness of our cultural backgrounds, and a far more interesting, in my opinion, than Carnaval or soccer (ok, ok, that’s a whole new subject to talk about. Maybe later, then).
So the first picture that caught my attention was this one below, where the girl explains what is, for her, as an Italian girl, to be invited to twirl.
The second has a girl eating a fruit right from the tree, and how she desired it as saw the fruit was ripen and colorful (by the way, I don’t think it will taste good to eat the pomegranate like that, I suggest you stick with the seeds only!)
And the last, which I think sums up what I’ve tried to say with these few words, is the one where the girl sees herself in the reflection of the meal she was about to have.
The pictures this week were amazing - simply amazing. I literally had to call Faith in to break a tie, or I would have been here forever, with my ridiculously indecisive nature. So… between Faith’s excellent eye for art and her reluctant generosity (I’m using her computer, as mine bit the dust day before yesterday - which is why I couldn’t post my own SPC this week) I feel like this post is a team effort.
There were a few pictures that instantly screamed “FOOD!!” and a few that I couldn’t figure out to save my life. I couldn’t find the food anywhere in the shot.
The picture I chose for my selection this week fell somewhere in the middle. When I first saw it, I thought “wow, that’s a beautiful self portrait. I don’t really get the food connection, but I do love the picture.” Then I spotted the highchair, softly blurred in the background.
I love the light here, I love that the focus is on Candice’s face - I love the emotion, and the lack of food. She looks beautiful, a little tired (I don’t mean that as an insult at all… I could just be projecting) and it all tells a story.
I’m right there myself, in the middle of that story. Food is not fun, it’s not something I enjoy creating. I don’t love cooking the way I used to - it’s a chore. I remember the days of being single - when cooking was something I did for fun.
Now it’s something I have to do. It’s one of the “have to’s” of life.
What I want to know from someone who’s been there and done that - is will I ever get back to the place where it becomes a desire again?
It’s all point of view - and I know there are people with huge families who love cooking. I’m infinitely jealous. For now, I identify more with Candice. Despite the reality, there is beauty. I love this self portrait.
I give a gold star for completing chores.
Image courtesy of Lucky Candice.
My theme for this week seemed to almost drop from a tree high above and land in my lap. Kind of like when Newton discovered gravity! I was highly amused by Jenica’s post about the evolution of an apple in her house as her small children couldn’t resist taking small bites of apples she set out for display. Then all I could see, or crave, over the past few days are gorgeous apples. Seems like quite a few of our apple-cheeked SPC players also fancy this fine fruit.
I think Vanessa says it best “I love the rough, bruised, bird-nibbled perfection of their skin and the pure, crisp, white, pippy flesh inside. Wherever we go now, handfuls of them come.”
Apples are the perfect portable food, aren’t they? VanessaRob
Apple fact: Apples vary in size from a little larger than a cherry to as large as a grapefruit. geekbetty
Apple fact: China, United States, Poland, Turkey and Italy are the top five apple producing countries
I realize the theme this month involves our relationship with food. But just as there is no good without evil, no love without hate - can you really and truly appreciate how blessed you are to enjoy a good meal if you’ve never once been in a situation with no options in the food department?
I know there are times even now I look at my food and think “wow, I still have a freaking single man’s fridge. How is this humanly possible?”
I go through phases of eating uber healthy and organic, then bust out the pop-tarts for a month straight.
The picture I chose this week said as much to me in one glance as I read in the whole post. We aren’t always happy with what we have in our kitchens or put in our mouths.
Christy chose an empty spoon in lieu of sharing food she wasn’t connecting with. We are what we eat - the reflection in that spoon is a basic truth.
I liked it.
I had so many spoon references to use, I just couldn’t choose.
Image courtesy of Christy, Blythe and Bonnie blog.
