The menu as an indicator of class differences: how photography includes and excludes : A comparative visual analysis on how photography and graphic design in menus are an indicator of class

In contemporary Swedish culture eating out has become a more common habit amongst people of different social groups. However, the restaurants where people choose to dine can be viewed as indicators of class affiliation. The aim of this study is twofold. Primarily it is to analyze how these class differences are displayed in the restaurant’s most prominent graphic design element, the menu. Through a visual analysis of four menus from restaurants located in Malmö, parameters such as informativity, food type and price range are measured against the presence of photographic food images. My results show that where the price increases, the frequency of actual photographic food images goes down. Secondly, and by using Pierre Bourdieu's theory of different forms of capital, the study aims to investigate the function of these photographic elements (and the lack thereof) on the chosen menus. The study ends with a conclusion that restaurants that do not use food photographs perform a kind of symbolic violence against customers of lower social classes.