Street photography has taught me that the interesting image is often already present. A gesture, a pause, a shaft of light, a small piece of geometry in an ordinary street: it appears when I am not rushing past it.
Food history asks for the same kind of attention. A dish is never only a dish. It carries trade routes, migration, climate, family memory and the ingenuity of people who made something enduring with what they had. My wife, Vani, is the real brain behind CPHLunchbox; I am the happily interested sidekick with a camera and a tendency to disappear down historical rabbit holes.
Both practices are reminders that context changes what we see. The photograph is richer when I notice the life around it. The recipe is richer when I understand the people and journeys behind it.
There is a lesson for organisations too. Data can tell us what is happening; attention helps us understand why. It asks us to look again at the person, the process or the quiet signal that does not fit the usual report.
Attention is not passive. It is a form of respect — for people, for craft and for the stories already present in ordinary life.
Written by Kannan Palanisamy