Zocalo: Picturing Food at the Getty

I attended an interesting lecture last night called "Picturing Food" at the Getty museum, set up by Zocalo Public Square in conjunction with Getty's exhibit of food photography culled from their collection.

Rather than a study of food styling, this was a discussion of food in/as art through history, and the type of dialogue that ensues from the images. The panel was narrated by Evan Kleiman of Good Food, and included Darra Goldstein, founder of Gastronomica.

Since I went to Russia after high school, I've been a fan of Darra's cookbooks on Russian foods, and just recently exchanged her book The Vegetarian Hearth on PaperbackSwap. It was one of the first cookbooks I bought myself some fifteen years ago, so seeing her in person was a bit of a thrill. She struck me as very professorial.

The images were striking, and the venue was exceptional. I sat in the first row of the balcony, with a bird's eye view. Projected onto a screen behind the panelists, the images were right in your face at some eight to ten feet tall.

My personal favorites were "Memphis," the inside of a freezer circa 1970s, and "Untitled Joy of Cooking," the pantry shot also circa 1970s.

Here's Zocalo's recap of the event. They have some interesting public issue forums and discussions, so I always keep an eye on their calendar.