Winner of the 2023 Association for the Study of Food and Society Book Prize for Edited Volume

Image by image and hashtag by hashtag, Instagram has redefined the ways we relate to food. Emily J. H. Contois and Zenia Kish edit contributions that explore the massively popular social media platform as a space for self-identification, influence, transformation, and resistance. Artists and journalists join a wide range of scholars to look at food's connection to Instagram from vantage points as diverse as Hong Kong's camera-centric foodie culture, the platform's long history with feminist eateries, and the photography of Australia's livestock producers. What emerges is a portrait of an arena where people do more than build identities and influence. Users negotiate cultural, social, and economic practices in a place that, for all its democratic potential, reinforces entrenched dynamics of power.

Interdisciplinary in approach and transnational in scope, Food Instagram offers general readers and experts alike new perspectives on an important social media space and its impact on a fundamental area of our lives.

Contributors: Laurence Allard, Joceline Andersen, Emily Buddle, Robin Caldwell, Emily J. H. Contois, Sarah E. Cramer, Gaby David, Deborah A. Harris, KC Hysmith, Alex Ketchum, Katherine Kirkwood, Zenia Kish, Stinne Gunder Strøm Krogager, Jonathan Leer, Yue-Chiu Bonni Leung, Yi-Chieh Jessica Lin, Michael Z. Newman, Tsugumi Okabe, Rachel Phillips, Sarah Garcia Santamaria, Tara J. Schuwerk, Sarah E. Tracy, Emily Truman, Dawn Woolley, and Zara Worth

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Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Introduction. From Seed to Feed: How Food Instagram Changed What and Why We Eat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

ZENIA KISH AND EMILY J. H. CONTOIS

PART I. IDENTITY

1. @hotdudesandhummus and the Cultural Politics of Food . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

MICHAEL Z. NEWMAN

2. Starving Beauties? Instabae, Diet Food, and Japanese Girl Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47

TSUGUMI (MIMI) OKABE

3. #Foodporn: An Anatomy of the Meal Gaze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

GABY DAVID AND LAURENCE ALLARD

4. The South in Your Mouth? Gourmet Biscuit Restaurants, Authenticity, and the Construction of a New Southern Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81

DEBORAH A. HARRIS AND RACHEL PHILLIPS

5. Uncle Green Must Be Coming to Dinner: The Joyful Hospitality of Black Women on Instagram during the COVID-19 Pandemic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94

ROBIN CALDWELL

6. Creative Consumption: Art about Eating on Instagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101

DAWN WOOLLEY AND ZARA WORTH

PART II. INFLUENCE

7. Picturing Digital Tastes: #unicornlatte, Social Photography, and Instagram Food Marketing . . . . . . . . .115

EMILY TRUMAN

8. Camera Eats First: The Role of Influencers in Hong Kong's Foodie Instagram Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .132

YUE-CHIU BONNI LEUNG AND YI-CHIEH JESSICA LIN

9. Repackaging Leftovers: Health, Food, and Diet Messages in Influencer Instagram Posts . . . . . . . . . . .148

TARA J. SCHUWERK AND SARAH E. CRAMER

10. Meet Your Meat! How Australian Livestock Producers Use Instagram to Promote "Happy Meat" . . . . . . . . .163

EMILY BUDDLE

11. FreakShakes and Mama Noi: Cases of Transforming Food Industry...