Once we were on vacation with a friend, and I noticed that she pays a lot of attention to photographing food for Instagram, in every restaurant where there was a dish more or less interesting in composition, she took several photos, before we started lunch or dinner. The phenomenon is well-known, and everyone laughed at it a long time ago, but recently I saw a wonderful video from IKEA, where the Swedes sneered at a similar trend.
In fact, the first association that occurs to me when I see such photographs is something like this: a person wants to brag. See what restaurant I'm in! See how delicious it is! In general, we are talking about pleasing your pride.
The second reason, which is usually indicated by the authors of the photos themselves, sounds like this: I just want my friends to be happy for me. In fact, it is difficult to distinguish it from the first, especially if you do not know the person. Does he sincerely want others to be happy for him, or does he just have a desire to show off.
The third reason is surprise. Usually, for this reason, they lay out some exotic dishes such as octopuses in honey, fried ants and other curiosities.
And the last reason, in my opinion, is self-pride. This is when people post something that they have prepared themselves. They want to show them how great they did, maybe warm their pride, but I think that, unlike the usual bragging about restaurant food, such pride in themselves is justified, especially if a really cool thing is done.
By the way, the theme of frequent food photos is perfectly played in the video Instagram Husband, which I talked about in one of the episodes of 'Mobile Environment'.
Do you photograph food? If so, why? If not, how, in principle, do you feel about such photos in the feed Instagram?