Thursday, April 14, 2011

Et Tu, VegNews?

Well. If you follow the world of Veg, you've probably heard. The very popular blog Quarrygirl blew it wide open yesterday, after all. It seems that the widely circulated VegNews Magazine has been lying to us all. In a nutshell, instead of actually taking photographs of genuine vegan food, they've been using stock photos of meat, dairy, and eggs and telling us (or at least implying) that these images are of vegan delicacies.

Sure, we understand that professional photography is expensive, and that running a magazine is expensive. We *also* understand, though, that there are many professional vegan photographers who would be more than happy to work with VegNews, as was described in detail in this blog post from Vegan Good Things...

One would think that after getting called out on something like this, a business would be repentent. Alas. In a statement issued in reply to the accusation, they "explained" that they only do this sometimes, that running a magazine is expensive... bla, bla, bla. Is that really an excuse to photoshop the bones out of a slab of ribs? I'm voting no, and I'm not the only one. The consensus in much of the community seems to be, "BLEGH."

We do hope that this onslaught of negative feedback will open VegNews' eyes and ultimately make them change their ways. Vegan photographers out there, get in touch! Let them know that they have options other than to use meaty stock photos! We know what the problem is; now let's find a solution, eh?

So once again there's lots of negativity in the vegan online universe. We've all been looking at pics of animal flesh and thinking it was good and pure vegan food! ACK!! But let's think about this: there are hundreds (really probably even thousands) of vegans all over the world who not only make utterly fabulous vegan foodstuffs, but ALSO take stunningly gorgeous pictures of it!

So here's what we're proposing. Let's combat this flurry of negativity and upset zooming around the internets. Let's celebrate vegan food by sharing some of these mouth-watering pictures with each other and with the world! Right here on the Vegan Etsy Team blog, we'll be posting photos from team members of real vegan food made by vegans.

Wanna join in? Leave a comment with a link to your blog, flickr, facebook, etc. where you keep all your gorgeous vegan food p*rn pics - we'll be happy to share those too! (WITH full credit, of course!)

So let's kick it off.

Here's a pic I took a while back of some real live vegan hazelnut frangelico fudge. Is it a novice pic? Sure. But personally, I think it looks good enough to eat. :)

15 comments:

Rhea Parsons said...

What a great idea. There is so much delicious vegan food out there in the blog world and incredible pictures. Better to do something about the problem than to just perpetuate vegan in-fighting.

My blog is The "V" Word and is at http://theveeword.blogspot.com

Embee Breedlove said...

Thanks Rhea! I will definitely check out your blog! :D

kelly g. said...

Oooh, how fun! I wanna play!

I have not one, not two, but three albums on flickr dedicated to vegan food - one for the humans, one for the canines, and one for the most important food category of them all: PIZZA!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/smiteme/collections/72157623839290631/

Not professional by any means, but I have had a few pubs request my permission to use them - which I almost always allow, with attribution & for free!

Jill Umphlett said...

Just moved my blog to its own website ... all the pictures there are of actual vegan food! =)

Gah, I can't believe 1)the dishonesty and 2)paying for photos of dead things and 3)passing them off as vegan.

This is a great idea ... like Rhea said, there's tons of awesome sites out there, with amazing photos. VegNews should have reached out to the online vegan blogging community - I mean, how cool would it be to test a recipe, photograph it, and get a mention in VegNews for your blog? People would have probably done that for free?

Kendy P said...

I am guilty of taking crappy pictures! I am also guilty of using stock images for my zine, nothing real, just retro graphics. I think what veg news did was shameful. I am sure there are tons of vegans that have mad skillz that would have taken time to do some photos, maybe for a free subscription or a swag bag from the next event.

Tara said...

I have a flickr album dedicated to pictures of vegan food I've made, yum yum
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fiftyacorns/sets/72157626348296896/

I also blog about the food I make a lot, http://fiftyacorns.blogspot.com

GiGi said...

Thanx for posting that Melissa. I didn't know that they did. That bites!

Unknown said...

Happy Zoe -- Great photos of amazing vegan dishes!!!

Unknown said...

whoa!

Heather said...

I love Etsy; we featured some Etsy shops on our new blog! :) I'm also so interested in everything vegan; it's a relatively new obsession of mine, and I'm so happy to learn that vegan and Etsy can go hand-in-hand! I will definitely be back on this blog, and I LOVE the pic of the fudge!! :)

Sugar Mountain Momma said...

I'm really disappointed with VegNews, not only in how they had been deceiving us into drooling over non-vegan food, but actually taking the extra steps to photoshop bones out of ribs! And then the statement they issued?! Ugh.

The pics on my blog are pretty amateur, I'm learning how to use my DSLR but there are a few I am pretty proud of(the thin mints!). Feel free to poke around:

http://veganfoodrocks.blogspot.com

Veganosaurus said...

Brilliant way of responding to this issue in a peaceful, constructive manner. I'm proud to be a member of Veganetsy! :)

I've e-mailed you pics, but if you'd like more, I have plenty on my blog: http://cutelittlepackage.blogspot.com

Julia said...

I will find a way to get my amateur vegan food photos to you soon!!! A couple are up on my blog:
http://www.veganisreasonable.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

http://midnightrabbits.blogspot.com/2009/08/delightful-vegan-picnic.html
real vegan food!

Unknown said...

also I've got a blog for vegan goods and reviews etc : http://itsvegan.blogspot.com/