Food Porn on Film: Nitty Beat Redefines the Starving Artist

Antipasti

Definition of Art: The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power. 

Nitty’s Commentary on Art: I want to add that no matter what the message the artist wants to convey, it's always received differently depending on the person. Therefore, I say art reveals people's perspective and insights.

Secondi

San Diego film photographer Nitty Beat is a Swiss Army knife of creativity — a candle maker, gearhead, food blogger and analog storyteller all in one breath. His insatiable imagination began to simmer in high school, when he picked up a camera to chronicle his skateboarding friends, unwittingly setting the table for a mouthwatering pursuit of photography. Since 2012, he’s been plumbing the depths of the gastronomic unconscious with his aptly titled photo series, Food Porn — a gleefully subversive feast that investigates our emotional relationship with food.

“I wasn't a fully formed artist yet. I was just a confused photographer growing up, trying to figure out what to do in life,” Nitty said. “And then while I was sitting in a restaurant called Neighborhood, I heard a lot of people moaning while they ate … that's how food porn was born.”

Nitty’s images serve up the dopamine rush of culinary desire — compulsive, indulgent, and innately human. For him, food is more than nourishment; it’s an allegiance to the principles of pleasure. Spaghetti provides a fetishized second skin, powdered donuts emulate the beguiling nature of controlled substances bioengineered for addiction, and fast food is dignified with the consumerist reverence of haute couture.

His muses — seldom professional posers — are friends, acquaintances and chefs alike, chosen not for their prestige but for their authenticity.

“I don't want to work with models because I want the reaction to be authentic, I want them to be really eating the food,” he admitted. “So I work with a lot of real people who were happy to be on the wall among people that they follow on Instagram, like influencers or Instagram models. They're up on the same wall as them to boost their self-esteem.”

Primo

Over the years, Nitty’s work has tapped into unforeseen resonance. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he segued toward advocating for unity and peace, staging tableaus in Asian-owned restaurants as a subtle rejection to escalating anti-Asian sentiment.

Even when audiences chafe against the sexual innuendo, Nitty considers that friction essential to the work: “Art reveals the true intention or colors of people,” he asserted. “Two people could look at the same images, one could be inspired and another one could be offended.”

Against the grain, Nitty has remained fiercely analog. He alternates between a Nikon F5, Canon AE-1, and Mamiya 645 camera body depending on budget constraints, favoring celluloid imperfections over digital clarity. Most of his work is suffused with natural light, though later installments of Food Porn pushed him into makeshift studio setups, testing his chops with flash and reflectors. His process is tactile, raw and sometimes expensive, but for Nitty, the unpredictability of film is what truly honors the reality of the moment.

Beyond food, Nitty’s photography has always been rooted in the preservation of memories. After losing his best friend in a drunk driving incident, he stumbled upon a photo album that detailed their teenage skateboarding exploits. In that time of grief, it became evident that his camera had the power to immortalize the people around him. A lucid dream that confronted his grandmother’s mortality even compelled him to photograph her shortly before her passing— a portrait that became a cherished family keepsake. These instances of tragedy anchor his philosophy: “it's just that thirst for life, thirst for knowledge, thirst for experience. Photography can be about memories, making history or capturing history.”

Digestivo

Nitty Beat’s Food Porn flouts convention and resists categorization. Playful yet serious, hedonistic yet introspective, sincere yet satirical; the series flourishes in contradiction. In a world obsessed with optics and personal branding, his photography reminds us that we are what we eat—a bid to reevaluate how desire, memory, and culture shape our appetites.