The Presentation of Consumption of Young Women: Food Photography in Instagram

Visuality becomes an essential factor of designing social practices, identities, lifestyles and consumption. This research paper has the problem of a foodstagram – photos of dishes in Instagram. The purpose of the work is the analysis of consumer practices of studying girls, users of Instagram, on the example of food photos. The empirical base consists of 10 interviews with girls (Instagram users) of 18-22 years, and the analysis of 25 articles from glossy magazines which not only raise the problem of publicity of food photos, but also explore the social context, where practices of dishes photographing are realized. Respondents differently understand photography in Instagram, in particular it depends on how they represent themselves: as bloggers or as ordinary users. Bloggers attribute the Instagram to professional work, from which it is possible to benefit. Moreover, the process of shooting is different from ordinary users. At the same time, ordinary users have unclear ideas about foodstagram: they tend to visualize the consumption of food as a desire to create the impression: to feel like a food-photographer or foodblogger, to demonstrate status or to make a trip to a cafe or restaurant like a public event.