A recent feature in the Washington Post led me to this website of the new Meatpaper magazine. It’s definitely not a recipe-filled compendium of sundry meat dishes. Instead, it flirts with ideas about meat, coupled with clever food art that challenges our view of carnivore-ness. In the piece titled “Sweat Sock: The Other White Meat,” the author asks a food stylist to arrange some rather non-traditional entrees to be photographed: a grilled tube sock, a charred stuffed animal, and a cooked thrift-store hardback novel. The article goes on to give professional tips on food photography, like using acrylic ice cubes when shooting beverages, or placing cardboard circles on top of hamburger patties to keep the top buns from drooping.

We doubt that we’ll ever resort to brushing canola oil on a steak from Cattlemen’s in Oklahoma City, or pouring glue instead of milk into a vanilla malt from Val’s Burgers in Hayward, California, just for that “money shot” photo…but we will remember to take food pictures with a sharper focus and underneath as much light as possible to minimize shadows.