Irving Penn's Lobster & Squid Food Photography As Sensual Aphrodisiac

Does Irving Penn’s photograph of lobster activate our hunger for eating it? Or are Penn’s gourmet visual images so stunningly and sensually satisfying that our appetite is satiated and hunger gone for now?

Am I depraved hedonist, looking that these Irving Penn photos and seeing them erotic culinary, deep-sea pearls of the unconscious mind? Did Mr. Penn play with our libidos in a casual cat and mouse game of sensual Love Potions teasing?

My journal post Irving Penn: Sensual Master left me wanting more exploration of how America suppresses our senses — unlike the French, Italians and Brazilians, a partial list of countries where a broader range of accepted sensual appetites results in definitely smaller bodies.

Having spend years of my life in France and Italy, I never felt that these women used food as substitutes for enjoying life, as American women do.

Until this moment, I haven’t put sensual food photographs in Love Potions, except to share the recipes. But staring at this Irving Penn still life composite of luscious, succulent food, I’m further convinced of the positive connection between food as aphrodisiac, positive sexuality and good health.

Strangely, when I put the phrase “photo as aphrodisiac” in Google English, there is no match — not one. It’s the same case for “photography as aphrodisiac.” 

It I could make one case effectively in the coming years, it’s the idea that our life appetite is different from our food appetitie in cultures that encourage us to sample everything: art, music, flowers, planting, and bubble baths to name a few pleasures.

I wonder if science has established a positive correlation between sensual experience and eating less of foods known to be bad for our health and turning us into slugs in the bedroom. French, Italian and Brazilian women (and many others) say ‘yes”, but the evidence may be anecdotal.

Staying faithful to my overall mission, I remind us that seafood is a sexual health food for real, an aphrodisiac because of its succulent, fleshy texture and verifiable libido-boosting properties.

Today we know that lobsters contain many of the nutrients necessary for peak sexual health. They are an ideal source of low-fat protein, much needed for a long night of seduction,  also a source of zinc and B-12, both necessary nutrients for maintaining sexual desire.

Lobster is perceived as a luxury, special occasion ‘treat’ food, an idea that inspires female sensuality more than McDonald’s.

As a cephalopod, squid and octopus are related to other mollusks like oysters and rich in Omega-3, critical to cardiovascular health and brain health, too. Omega-3 fights depression, a common problem in women and one that dramatically affects sexual desire before we swallow the little happy pill. (That statement is only a metaphorical “we”. I’ve never taken a pill for depression, not one.)

Enough science for the moment. My focus is sensuality and erotic food photography … except here we go with brain science again. An article gaining momentum at Anne of Carversville concerns programming our brain’s RAS system as it relates to food. Simply stated, I’ve trained my brain’s RAS system to scream”poison” at the mere sight of fast food. Trust me, this exercise works very well in fighting off food.

Japanese Ikura for Dessert

In a reverse RAS exercise, I love ikura (salmon roe) eating it instead of green tea ice cream for dessert in Japanese restaurants. Unlike fast food, I’m not making a case against green tea ice cream, only saying that ikura is my dessert and a decades-long food ritual.

For everyone who says “how awful”, I say “totally sublime”.

How about a photo of Ikura instead? It looks pretty darn sexy to me, which is precisely what Irving Penn understood about food photography. Food photography is capable of arousing our senses or turning them off, with a flick of the shutter.

Scientists investigating gender differences to erotic photography have established that women say they hate certain photography, but the pleasure centers of their brains are on fire, along with other measurable physical systems governing sexual desire.

Men are totally consistent between brain and body. Women are the opposite. What we say and what our bodies are doing are polar opposites. We’re not crazy, just caught up in socially appropriate behavior.

I’m not writing about chocolate cake here, but erotic photography. I seriously doubt that scientists used photos or Japanese ikura sushi in their research, so we’ll never know if I’m alone in seeing ikura as a passionate dessert and bit of sensual foreplay or have serious company around the world. Anne

More reading:

Irving Penn: Master Sensualist

Just Say ‘No’: Programming Your Brain to Hate Size Zero Fashion Ads

The Sexiest Pumpkin Risotta with Lobster Meat Ever