Food porn and foodgawker

April 25, 4:37 AMProvidence Food ExaminerDonna Diegel

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Fresh Peach Galette

"FOOD PORN has become particularly prevalent in blogs relating to food, where it is a term for photography and writing about food that is done in a decadent and borderline erotic style." says Wikipedia.

Who is foodgawker?

foodgawker (yes, foodgawker is spelled out in lower case) was created in June, 2008 as a result of TasteSpotting's unfortunate two week melt-down. (See my article Food Porn: What Is TasteSpotting?) Chuck Lai from Sunday Nite Dinner (SND), saw an opportunity and jumped on it real fast. Within days, foodgawker was up and running with instant content. Food bloggers dealing with severe food porn withdrawal, were going crazy submitting one photo after another to the new game in town. I was one of those bloggers that caught on real quick! I submitted a few blog url's and photos. Within 4 hours, I noticed my stats climbing once more. YES! We have food porn again!

It was touch and go for a few weeks as foodgawker tested  the waters and played around with their new design. It looked an awful lot like TasteSpotting, but no one seemed to care as long as we had another outlet for our addiction. Their home page has the same 48 photos to a page, and it looks real crisp and clean.

What is foodgawker?

Chuck says, "foodgawker is a gallery where food bloggers can showcase their food and photography skills. It's a place for you to discover new sites, dishes, recipes and ingredients to inspire your own cooking. Anyone can submit pictures, if they follow our simple site rules..."  Due to the rumors floating around that TasteSpotting had shut down due to legal issues, bloggers were relieved that foodgawker spelled out the rules rather quickly. Attribution is mandatory. Submissions are moderated. Photos need to be beautiful, with good lighting, and they will be cropped if you don't do it yourself. foodgawker tends to be very picky, so only submit your best work! Copyright violations will not be tolerated. No photo stealing. GOOD, and Thank You!

Not only has foodgawker held their own in the food porn industry, but they've also raked in roughly 23,144 submissions and photos in less than a year. That is totally impressive! The only downside to the whole Food Porn explosion, is that you tend to see the same photos, from the same blogs, with the same captions at TasteSpotting, Photograzing and foodgawker. Too much of a good thing is simply wasted.

The founder of Food Interviews, Stefani Pollack, also of Slashfood, interviewed Chuck Lai last June, right after he started foodgawker. Take a look, it's a real interesting read! You'll also get plenty of tips and suggestions on how they accept and decline photos, what they look for, and how to size your photos.

Long Term Predictions?

Food Porn is here to stay, and I for one am thrilled! foodgawker is a professional site, I love seeing my photos on their pages, my stats soar after being published, and I appreciate their feedback. What's not to love about Food Porn?

Check Out foodgawker's Favorite Bloggers

In addition to the Tuesdays With Dorie and The Daring Baker groups, there are some real interesting and worthy blogs that regularly submit photos. Take a look.You'll be glad you did!

• White on Rice Couple
• Spatulas & Corkscrews
  
• bitchin camero
• What's For Lunch Honey?
• And Then I do the Dishes 
• Whisk: a food blog
• The Food Librarian
• Chez Us