Does This Photo Make You Mad?
When my editor, Andrew Beaujon, first showed me the arresting photo that Darrow Montgomery had snapped for our look at The Source's new izakaya-style menu, I told him, "The animal rights people are going to kill us."
I didn't think that was necessarily a bad thing. The animal rights people often have a better understanding of where their food comes from — and they don't like it. Others remain blissfully unaware of the bloody, boiling messiness involved in getting animals to the table for our enjoyment.
Montgomery's photo (and Melissa McCart's story) is a visceral reminder of the animal sacrifice often required for our meals. I told Beaujon that for those who only see a sculpted and sauced protein on a plate, or a shrink-wrapped slab of red meat in the grocery store, this picture will jolt them back to reality. And very quickly. That strikes me as the best kind of photojournalism.
Not everyone feels the same way.
The paper, to date, has only received one complaint about the cover shot, but I spoke with the PR representative for the Source, who said the restaurant has fielded its share of unhappy calls.
So now I want to hear from you, Y&H Nation: What's your reaction to Montgomery's photo?
Photo by Darrow Montgomery
1:16 pm
Um...i hate to ask but is the bird already dead? If it's dead the photo doesn't bother me so much. If that's a live bird, yeah it does.
1:19 pm
ditto. I can't tell. But then we kill lobsters and crabs in boiling water. The things we do.
1:33 pm
I'd say bird is dead, its been defeathered already. Defeathering involves dunking in boiling water (usually) and pulling out the feathers. That would kill them for the most part... Also, I think its generally illegal to kill your food in the kitchen, other than shellfish.
1:36 pm
"Ah F\${!" said the Aflac duck as he was ladled with hot oil.
Looks good, when do we eat?
As someone who has gutted two deer...where's the story here?
1:39 pm
People need to know where their food comes from and what is involved in the process. I think the knowledge gained from this outweighs any ethical issues.
1:46 pm
I dont like the eye of the bird looking at me..."why oh why have you done this to me..."
1:47 pm
It doesn't make me any more mad than when such things happen behind closed doors and no one thinks about it. Rather, foregoing the elimination of unnecessary animal suffering, I suppose it's better for people to see the suffering they cause rather than to spare themselves the sight.
3:19 pm
Seriously, we are animals too. That being the case we are the natural top of the food chain, and we've adapted various methods of eating everything below us on the food chain. It's nature at work. In the wild the animals that get eaten surely "suffer" while they are being eaten alive by their predators. I'm surprised all the nutbag PETA folks haven't gotten an injunction to remove this photo yet...
3:34 pm
I am an animal rights person and I am not angry at your posting this, as your euphemism ("they are going to kill us") suggests I might be. I am with Cody, I think it is important for people to see what they are eating.
I think this bird is already dead, but that doesn't mean it didn't suffer the same treatment while alive. It is typical for pigs and birds to go into the scalding tanks still conscious to have their feathers and hair removed (slaughter lines move too fast, all in the name of cheap "food"). So keep looking at pictures like this and don't dismiss them. This is an honest representation of the type of pain that millions of animals suffer .every.singe.day.
4:24 pm
"singe" pun intended? Veginas are so punny
1:57 pm
This just in, animals have faces and we kill them in order to eat them. I'm pretty sure that is how humans have eaten for the last, oh, few hundred thousand years.
2:44 pm
Looks yummy!
9:54 am
It didn't make me mad, but I could red the newspaper in front of my relatives, they were really bothered by it.
The truth is that I would have used a different shot because it is different showing a live lobster being boiled... this bird you can see it's face crearly si it's normal to feel some sort of uncomfortable.
It reminded me of the photography on Food & Arts Magazine and Gastronomica, a little bit on the sensationalist side for my taste.
On showing this pictures in order to shake people about animals suffering, I'm not so sure on that strategy, since the same campaign on cigarettes showing the Sick Lungs pictures on the box people still smoke.
Cheers.