Photography and cookery

[Markok765]

I love marindaing meat in my secret marinade for 2 days and slow cooking it on charcoal

[HerrBremerhaven]

Hello Roger (and Frances),

Almost had me lost there with the replies from Andy. I took the original to mean the tools used for cooking or preparing a meal, not the ingredients. However, I think Andy brought in an important point that one should not take ingredients for granted. With that in mind, the ingredients (food) would be like the film, and the cooking utensils would be like the camera. It is not expensive to buy really high quality fresh ingredients, whether that is film or food items. Unfortunately, the best of cooking utensils, and the best of cameras are not within the financial means of all enthusiasts.

Most of the people in my family were very good cooks, and even my dad briefly worked at a five star restaurant as a chef (though not running the place). We also had an interesting rule when I was growing up that whomever did the cooking did not have to do the dishes . . . I hated cleaning dishes. So one way or another I learned how to make nearly any food dish. I am now at the point that I can eat something at a restaurant, and understand how to make it from scratch.

My photography is not at that intuitive level, since I cannot just pick up any camera and instantly get the best from it. While there is some commonality of camera settings and controls, I feel like some of the newer designs work against my ways of taking photos. While I can make do with just about any kitchen utensils, I find that I am better with more specific types of camera controls (one example would be command dials on modern SLRs, something I never like using).

I think an interest in certain things outside photography can help when working as a photographer. It would be tougher for me to photograph a scene or subject that I am little interested in, than for me to photograph something closer to my interests. Examples besides food would be architecture, automotive, musicians, dancers, and urban life. I find that I do better photography when I am more interested in what I am photographing.

Ciao!

Gordon

[bob01721]

Photography seems to me to be uncommonly like music, and indeed, some of the ingredients are the same... both are a state of mind rather than a matter of precisely following a score: we've all heard musicians who do everything as notated on the staff but whose performances are never inspired.
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Photography seems to me to be uncommonly like writing prose, and indeed, some of the ingredients are the same... both are a state of mind rather than a matter of precisely following an outline: we've all read writers who use perfect grammar and syntax but whose stories are never inspired.
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Photography seems to me to be uncommonly like dancing, and indeed, some of the steps are the same... both are a state of mind rather than a matter of precisely following the choreography: we've all seen dancers who execute every movement flawlessly but whose performances are never inspired.

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It's not limited to cooking. Your analogy holds wherever there is a technical underpinning for creative expression.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Another enthusiastic cook here.

Part of the appeal of albumen printing is figuring out what to do with all the egg yolks. Most go into ensaimadas, but some make it into ice cream, breads, hollandaise sauce and such like. I've kept the albumen stage of the process non-toxic (egg whites, sea salt, and distilled white vinegar), so I can do it with kitchen utensils.

[MikeSeb]

Photography seems to me to be uncommonly like cookery, and indeed, some of the ingredients are the same.

In both cases, too, it's the result that matters: how you get there is distinctly secondary.

Little did you know, Roger, how controversial these remarks would prove to be. Rabble-rousing again, eh?

I am ceaselessly amazed at the human capacity to argue over, bicker about, and be offended by the most trivial of things.

And speaking of food, one gets the impression that Roger at some point must have Pissed in Andy's Cornflakes.

I am sure someone would dissent if I claimed that the sun generally rises in the east or that the earth is not flat.

Argument for argument's sake is tedious. I think some here need to get out more often (probably includes me as well.)

[Roger Hicks]

It's not limited to cooking. Your analogy holds wherever there is a technical underpinning for creative expression.

Dear Bob,

An interesting argument, which well illustrates the shortcomings of analogies. Being neither musical nor a dancer, those would not have occurred to me, and indeed, they are performances rather than products. A meal, a book, a photograph are products, and of course the meal falls flat on its face in the analogy because it cannot be revisited, unlike a book or a picture.

With writing, too, one can revise the existing product, rather than re-making it, as you have to with a print (though not of course the negative).

Thanks very much for broadening my perception of an admittedly simplistic analogy.

Thanks too to the others who have thrown further light on the subject, especially Gordon. One reason I'm not 'getting out more' is that Frances is not well. It will go away, but it takes a long time and it's not much fun. She can't even spend as much time in the darkroom as she would like. It's pseudopolyarthritis rhizomale in French; sorry, dunno in English.

Cheers,

Roger

[blansky]

As someone who doesn't cook,(although I have) and is not orgasmic over a great meal (although great meals are....great) I find what makes any meal great is simply the company that you eat it in.

For me, the experience of the meal, with great conversation is the key.

As for the analogy between cooking and photography, and the meal being the deciding factor, I think many people like the process of cooking and the meal being just the outcome. As it is with many people and their photography, the doing, is more important than the result.

I'm not one of them but that's just me.



Michael

[Roger Hicks]

I find what makes any meal great is simply the company that you eat it in. Michael

Definitely true -- though being married to Frances I'm well placed there too!

Cheers,

Roger

[Sean]

My 2c... Part of what makes me human is enjoying how other humans achieved something artistic by their own hand. We are not just soulless machines that look at an artistic object and say to ourselves, "observing art work, processing data, object meets acceptable parameters, storing in memory, observing next piece". I get a sense of enjoyment looking at something that I know took extreme human effort, craft and skill. I prefer the sculpture of David by Michelangelo vs. someone having a 3D body scan and then precisely carved out of marble using the new computer controlled stone carving machines. The 3D body scan + machine carved sculpture will clinically be more perfect than Michelangelo's but who cares, anyone could do it if they have a 3D body scanner and the new mechanized sculpting tool. I think if we allow ourselves to ignore the process of hand crafted art then we are losing some of our humanity and becoming just like the computers and machines producing everything for us..

[Robert Brummitt]

I do about 90-95 percent of the cooking for my family at home. I do think that cooking is much like darkroom work for me. Infact, my daughter has started an interest to be with me in the darkroom but I asked her to join me first in the kitchen. Once she uderstands that weights and measures of cooking and the final results come from careful work. Then she will join me in the darkroom.
One other observation I have had. All artists and all photographers enjoy a good meal, a good bottle of wine or beer, good friends and good conversation.