Unlike many "web loggers" I ordinarily avoid merely linking to other web sites for two reasons:

1. I would prefer you stay here at this hot sandwich.
2. I have many stories about bums and sebaceous cysts to share.
3. I am greedy.
4. Please send me five dollars.

But today, at the urging of the lovely and talented Clive, I must make an exception. For the web site you are about to visit contains photos of Weight Watchers recipe cards from the 1970s.

If you look closely, you will see that all the depicted foodstuffs look repellent and inedible. Of course they do. They are nearly 30 years old. Would you eat something that was 30 years old? No, you would not. So quit acting all surprised.

My favourite of the lot is "Melon Mousse," which looks like your brain on drugs and is served on a plate with an attractive "leafy-greens" edge pattern. You can see it all clearly because the entire frame is in crisp focus.

This reminds me of the big problem with 21st-century food photography: it is blurry. Oh, a single berry atop a small muffin might look sharp, but everything nearer the camera and everything farther away is totally indistinct and unfocused. No depth of field at all. I blame Martha Stewart. All the photos in her magazine look like that.

Do you think she does that so nobody can see her pot belly?

Posted by Bret at April 11, 2003 03:50 PM