First Camera, Then Fork. NY Times article by Kate Murphy

Ms. Murphy describes the fact that people are photographing their food as a growing trend. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/dining/07camera.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

She opens with a story about a neuroscientist who has 9000 photographs of everything he has eaten in the last five years--after he lost 80 pounds, as a method of self motivation. She states that Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote, “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.” Flickr has 300K food photos from 19,000 of its members.  Other motivators include match making. voyeurism, just plain showing off, or whatever as a way of filling your facebook page while filling your face, or in general documenting another part of your life just like we advocate.

I was able to resonate with this trend and then went back to look at trips in France beginning in the late 70s when memorable meals were photographed and logged in terms of price performance-- correlating taste with the Michelin food tasters.  Since then, I tend to photograph all meals eaten at restaurants including the check, and especially memorable "restaurant quality" home cooking. Just a month ago, faced with the first course of a potentially memorable 7-course degustation menu meal at our favorite Japanese restaurant. I had no option but to run home (across the street), get the camera, and arrive back to photograph and enjoy.

SenseCam also greps these photos too. Wearing it while dining allows you to see a plate of food disappear. If only it would analyze the calories.  In a way, I get this by estimating my calories burned and adjusting it by the weight gain when I step on the scales!

I have little urge to do anything other than to savor the screen saver recollection. Like virtually all of MyLifeBits, these photos are for me. However, if you saw the photos, you would conclude like the people in the article-we all like to eat. I just wish my body and heart wouldn't mind so much.