Food for Thought

“Isn’t every frame an accident, perhaps of our own choosing?”–K Madhavan Pillai

A year has passed and it’s a new year once more. How quickly time flies. Before you know it, one more year would have come and gone. It seems just like yesterday that photography was so very different. It was deliciously slow in process and even naive in its rendition. It was always alive with the promise of discovery. Release the shutter. Stop. Think. Wind the lever. Release. Stop. Think. Wind. Wait. Release. Rewind. New film. Be it now or then, some things have remained the same. It still takes effort and skill to make a decision.

Divide one second into two hundred and fifty parts. Which one would you choose? Or do you let it slide? There is always one more second, one more opportunity around the corner. Over time, and with practice, it becomes an informed choice. With more time, and as we learn to control, we learn to plan things out. There are happy accidents. Many of them, in fact. Some nice moments captured without looking through the finder. But isn’t every frame an accident, perhaps of our own choosing?

Sometimes, we let moments slide all to easily. Before we know it, another year has passed along with all its opportunities. I really do think it all comes down to making a choice and committing to it. Perhaps this is the year to start something new, and to do things differently. This issue has some amazing food photographers, all of who made a choice to start a series, or a project of their own, at some point. I am certain it has not been as easy as all that. To be able to see food so differently must have taken a lot of observation and patience.

They have had to work for days, months, often years to put out a well seen, well edited series of excellent images. We hope you enjoy this issue as much as we had fun putting it together. Here’s to a great year ahead, filled with opportunity. Do write in to me and send me your thoughts and ideas on your new projects, and the photographs that come your way.

This article originally appeared in the April 2016 issue of Better Photography.