comfort food shoot

I conducted a survey online asking people (through social media platforms) to submit their ‘ultimate comfort food’ – some submitted simply a word or two, others a short description, and some a lengthy anecdote describing the nostalgia or pleasure created by consuming their favourite food. This formed the basis of a still life shoot depicting people’s comfort food. After researching and being aware of the ‘wellness’ and ‘clean-eating’ trend that is especially visible on social media, I find it intriguing how the foods people actually enjoy eating, that make them feel better when they are sick, sad, tired or just relaxing, are actually not the most aesthetically pleasing. I wanted to, visually, comment on how we are constantly Instagramming superfood-packed bowls of porridge, açai bowls, smoothies or fruit platters, because they are so typically ‘pretty’ and send out a message of health, purity and attractiveness to our followers, but really the foods we get real pleasure from are (to name a few submissions) toast, garlic bread, macaroni cheese, pizza, donuts and shortbread biscuits.

I wanted to select a few of these submissions and depict them against backdrops resembling bedcovers, to relate to the theme of comfort food and the intimate, clandestine act of bingeing on your favourite snacks in bed. I used silky, luxurious looking fabrics which when juxtaposed with the typically ‘unattractive’ food created a playful aesthetic, presenting cheap, everyday supermarket products as something glamorous.