Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Old School Food Porn

The melding of art, commerce and food has always intrigued me. The love of food porn photography is evident. But there was food porn before there was color photography. There were talented artists who toiled away, usually without credit, producing labels and advertising that would lure the consumer into reaching that hand out and paying money for a King Tut Lemon.
As I zip around the internet, poking into all things food, I'll be posting an occasional series on Old School Food Porn, whether it be fruit crate labels or World War Two Homefront posters.


Enjoy!

8 comments:

Making Space said...

Oh my gosh! I was just looking at a book at the hippie coffee shop today that had all kinds of these old food drawings - going back not just decades, but centuries. Coolz!

The photo from Gourmet gets a rrrrr though, 'cause dang, who can resist?

Dani said...

WooHoo! This is gonna ROCK!!!

Buzz Kill said...

We use to collect old crates from the produce stand and use them for storage in the garage. We would try to get different ones because having all the same kind didn't looked cool. Looking forward to the porn.

Aunty Belle said...

Heh..now this is porn I could go wif'!

Sigh. I hate the loss of Gourmet. Drat, double drat.

The poster of the Crop Corps! That is wild--love it.

An' I is sorry to miss the citrus Dim Sum--thought I'd get to it but the timin' was too tough fer me--Granny issues is a full time job right now. (jes' doan want ya ter think the Throwdown of Beef & Beans caught mah eye any more than the Dim Sum. As ya mighta seen--my throwdown entry was very late, last minute thing)

On another point--I'se startin' to wig out over food cleanliness. New Consumer Reports shows 39% of bagged salad greens is infested wif' fecal coliforms--gick!!!

Then we read how new studies show beef and pork from animals fed Monstanto's GM corn is causin' kidney an' liver problems (in rats, but hey, if rats organs become diseased from eatin it, ourse prolly will too!)

SO....you hang out on the food porn sites so I can have a reviving place to come--cause I'se morbidly drawn to the horror of the food terror sites. eeeek!

I WANT MAH OWN FARM!!

Big Shamu said...

I'm not big on the bagged salad greens, too expensive. And then there's that fecal thing...

Back yard gardens will solve that problem. Even container gardens help. Lettuce in a container is so easy.

Yes the seed companies are just a little bit scary. Can you say Roundup Ready seeds and Superweeds?

h said...

Interesting. Bet you'll discover some famous artists did these for a living as yutes.

moi said...

Coolio! Although, I think your photography is about as excellent as any out there. That last one of the snapper with its tail in the air like it just don't care? And the anchovies woven into the potatoes? Stunning. If I edited cookbooks, I'd hire you quicker than you could say, "Make mine with bacon."

LaDivaCucina said...

Moi, how come you always write what I'm thinking?!

As soon I saw this post I thought of the poster my girlfriend in Chicago has:

Click here