Food has always been more than food to me
Food has always been more than food to me.
My relationship with food has been shaped by a mixture of cultures, memories and experiences. Austrian, North Indian and East African influences have all been part of the food world I grew up around, each bringing its own flavours, traditions, colours and ways of sharing food.
Both my grandmothers were incredible cooks, each in their own cuisine, and could produce a feast for 20 or more people without thinking twice. Food was at the centre of our family life, woven into gatherings, conversations, celebrations and everyday moments.
But it wasn’t until a gloomy Wednesday afternoon in 2020 that my journey into working with food really began. Trying to get the recipe for a family favourite that I’d eaten dozens times but hadn’t actually made, it suddenly occurred to me just how much those forgotten recipes and their associated memories meant to me.
And so began a project; to collect our family recipes and turn them into a cookbook.
It became a way of preserving much more than recipes. It was a way of holding onto memories, traditions and the food that had brought our family together for generations.
I think about that project quite often now when I’m photographing food.
Because the more I work with food, the more I realise that a photograph can do something similar.
It can preserve a moment. Communicate a story. Make us remember something familiar, or become curious about something we’ve never experienced before.
And perhaps that is why I don’t see food photography as simply making a dish look good.
I see it as a way of making someone feel something about the food before they have even tasted it.
I don’t photograph food. I craft visual appetite.
Because food has always been more than food to me.
About the Author
Ansuya is a food photographer specialising in Indian and global cuisine.
