One of my favorite photo series in instagram is photos of food taken with flat angle, parallel to the table, which requires the photographer to stand up, on the floor. Or on a chair, if that should be the case. Asians, of course, used to be mocked for taking quotidian objects, ephemeral arrangement of food that is going to our stomach, and will be excreted anyway. But of course, like selfies, its value increased thanks to de Generes. And people may forget that van Gogh painted fruits.
Well, if you also like to see photos of food from flat angle, Dinah Fried's new book Fictitious Dishes will elevate this pleasure by tingling your familiarity with classic literature. This is a cute and creative project that makes you think about the significance of food and drink description in toning a novel.
For example, i just finished Kate Atkinson's "Life After Life". It is opened with German bakery scrumptiousness at almost the end of WWI, then it goes back to the home baked goods in an English countryside, scones with fresh cream, before the war. The next chapters contrast it with impoverished life in London during the war when Ursula (the protagonist) only had alcohol from her auntie's rustic, abandoned wine storage.
Anyone remembers Pramoedya's Minke who gets a package of nasi goreng and hot egg on a train, while he's "kidnapped" to be brought back to his father? Also, how the math genius Ms. Salander doesn't have time to eat but still Stig Larsson gives description of what she eats although it's almost nothing. Alright, but maybe the best description is live in Tarantiono's Inglourious Basterds, when Hans Landa chews that apfelstrudel. "Wait for the cream," he said patiently before eating it.
Anyone remembers Pramoedya's Minke who gets a package of nasi goreng and hot egg on a train, while he's "kidnapped" to be brought back to his father? Also, how the math genius Ms. Salander doesn't have time to eat but still Stig Larsson gives description of what she eats although it's almost nothing. Alright, but maybe the best description is live in Tarantiono's Inglourious Basterds, when Hans Landa chews that apfelstrudel. "Wait for the cream," he said patiently before eating it.
Some of my favs:
On the side note, the last meals project is also a project to make food graphic by describing some of the famous death row inmates' last meal (pretty self-explanatory). What does last meals do? Is it to make death sentence more human or to see the inmates as humans? Does the last meal mediate our fear that the decision is irreversible thus making the inmate humans may remind us to carry the sentence humanely? Or the other way around, does giving them humane connection (good food, usually not provided daily in prison) makes us the representatives of better humans (the victims)?
