Not quite what I expected, although I’m not sure what I expected

Yesterday I took an opportunity to go and see a photography show on at The Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver. I got a ride downtown and then we zipped across the harbour on the Seabus, wandered in to the magnificent building and took a look at what was on offer.

It was a show called, ‘Feast for the Eyes: A Story of Food in Photography’

It was rather interesting. Of course they had typical images such as Edward Weston’s Pepper and Henri Cartier-Bresson’s ‘Sunday on the Banks of the River Seine’. The show also had images from Martin Parr and other notable photographers.

Of course you can’t include everything one might want to see in a show about food photography. They did the best they could to show a broad range of images, but personally speaking, when half of the images need to have the blurb next to them read in order to understand the context or what the viewer is looking at, it might be time to reconsider some of the images.

One thing I loved was the image by Sharon Core of a tableaux looking all the world like an old-master painting. Apparently aside from being an excellent photographer she also grows her own heirloom fruit and vegetables in order to perfectly re-create paintings from several hundred years ago. That’s dedication.

It did cross my mind that they also could have included an instagram image of pretty much anyone who has a zillion followers. That would have been the embodiment of a lack of dedication.

Regardless, the show did make me think and, most importantly, it made me want to pick up my camera, which is always a good sign.