'In Focus: Tasteful Pictures' puts food photos on the Getty's menu

With just about a gazillion pictures of food on blogs and websites, accessible at the touch of a BlackBerry button, it might seem a little ho-hum to stage a museum show of food photography.

But an exhibition at the Getty Museum called "In Focus: Tasteful Pictures" is anything but boring.

In just one room, the exhibition, drawn from the museum's permanent collection, traces food photography over 150 years, from the mid-19th century to today.

It includes meticulously staged still lifes, a performance art photogram and an enormous jumble of contraband food.

Not one of these pictures is made with a digital camera, said Virginia Heckert, associate curator in the museum's photography department and curator of the exhibit. Read more here.

-- Mary MacVean

Photo credit: Edward W. Quigley