Capturing Culinary Culture in Digital Era: Food Photography’s Influence on Gastronomic Perception and Cultural Identity

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-799-1_17How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Food photography; gastronomy; culinary culture; social media; semiotics; cultural identity; food imagery; sensory experience; visual representation; ethical implications

Abstract

Food, once limited to the sphere of eating, now shows a complex part for it goes past simple support. It exists as a form for cultural expression and an art form to share and exhibit. Images related to food surge, and the ubiquitous hashtag for “#food photography” often accompanies those images to underscore their function that evolves to be social and communicative and provocative in contemporary society. Food photography used to be a genre that catered just to print media but now it prominently shapes perceptions of cuisine, even as it transcends customary boundaries. It now plays quite an important role in the visual representation of culinary experiences. Food delivery company strategies now feel its influence. Semiotics recognizes food as a language as well as a symbol of culture and ideology. Semiotics has ventured into understanding food’s connotative value as well as its role as an aspect of social identity since it sees food in this kind of way. This approach agrees with contemporary foodism. Our postmodern society widely practices foodism through expression via various media. A certain manifestation of such a phenomenon is in the practice of food photography, which can include individual expressions, known as “food photography,” similar to a food “selfie,” and food photography as also an art form. Social networks do virally use photography showing how it shapes cultural narratives in the age that is digital. This study seeks to clarify how food photography affects views of cuisine plus its sensory feelings experienced by viewers.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Monika Rani
AU  - Umang Bhartwal
AU  - Sandeep Raheja
AU  - Simran
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/08/13
TI  - Capturing Culinary Culture in Digital Era: Food Photography’s Influence on Gastronomic Perception and Cultural Identity
BT  - Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Innovation and Regenerative Trends in Tourism and Hospitality Industry (IRTTHI 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 185
EP  - 198
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-799-1_17
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-799-1_17
ID  - Rani2025
ER  -