ABSTRACT

How do we explore, understand, and convey the sensorial relationalities that food practices entail, and what other kinds of questions and knowledge does a photo-essay bring us? Just as ethnographic research is exploratory, reflexive, and therefore partially open ended, using photography as method and publication format must also respond to the unanticipated, qualitative nature of research. By exploring the limitations and possibilities of the photo-essay, I argue for a more inclusive multimodal methodology for grasping the nexus of food, city, and the senses. I use the photo-essay to discuss the food walks by a local group of foodies to an old neighbourhood in Chennai. The food walks, I argue, have become a means to sense the real, vernacular city. These walks, in other words, are not about the food per se but about sociality and sensing the city.