Then you haven’t seen some of the Zillow Gone Wild photos on FB or IG. 
Some examples:
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Skidmarks? 
No, those are the stems of poppies painted on the plate!
Good point, though! I’ll clean that up before presenting to Bon Appetit!
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yeah, there’s ‘ugly delicious’, and there’s ‘regrettable’
both could be entertaining topics here 
I thought it looked good until you characterized them as skid marks!
I think people seldom take pictures of bad food because their primary motivation to take pictures in the first place is to brag. Who brags about eating crappy food? It seems to me that most pictures are of the “Look at the deliciousness I’m eating! Don’t you wish you were me?” variety.
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Too bad I didn’t take a picture!
Shortly after getting married, we hosted Christmas dinner for our families. I saw a pine cone-shaped cake in a food magazine, and thought I’d make that for dessert; this was when I was an ambitious neophyte baker.
I made the cake and my own marzipan, shaped the cake and covered it with the marzipan. It just didn’t look right, so I asked my wife to come talk a look, which she did……then ran out of the kitchen laughing! When asked why it was so funny, she responded that it looked like a torpedo!
Tasted great though!
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This may be the answer.
Still, I’m fascinated by the psychology of personal worth investment in food, especially where the eater didn’t prepare it. Got snookered into buying the Costco Iberico ham leg that “lasts unrefrigerated”? I sure did, and I wished I’d taken some photos!
There are all sorts of shows about fixing bad tattoos, bad plastic surgery, bad clothing, bad decorating, etc., and we even have some in the “restaurant rescue” genre.
So I think there may be an element of Schadenfreude to go with the braggadocio.
I take pictures of food for my own pleasure - to share with family or friends, or for vacation memories. I really take them just to post (this community is one of the my exceptions). For that reason, photos of a disappointing meal would be pointless for me.
But I do take and share photos of meals or dishes that might be laughably bad. I thankfully have had very few of those, or they were in settings where I didn’t expect anything great. Usually when I have a bad enough experience in a restaurant to post about, it has more to do with service, or a combo of lackluster food and service.
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Eh, can’t edit anymore but just wanted to clarify that I was trying to write “I really don’t take them just to post”…
This might be one reason. I don’t think it is all that ugly either except for the skid marks now that you mention it. All I thought was, “I’d eat that.” Perhaps people are less likely to post a picture of something they think is ugly because someone might make something similar that they are very proud of and thinks looks great. Thus, you don’t want to accidently yuck someone’s yum. That is not to say it would not be useful in reviews because someone’s yuck, might be my yum.
But really I think because people tend to take pictures of things they want to brag about or to remember something they enjoyed as Kobuta says.
LOL I think it is safe to say that that is ugly. LOL
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Very. Lol . But tastey. No shame here. We can’t be glamorous all the time.
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I think that “food” is essentially photogenic. I have created and, yes, even posted great looking plates that sucked. A photo does not project flavor, texture, nuances of recipe, even how hot or cool the food is. Kind of like dating sites. What you see or read may or may not be what you get.
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Whoa. That’s… offputting. I’d have a hard time looking at that even if I didn’t strongly dislike peas.
no one ever posts photos of bad food.
Perhaps you’re referring to posts to do with restaurant reviews, but the internet (as others have started to point out) is awash with photos of dismal plates.
@JakeyTeas is a brilliant account providing what you say is missing.
Peas are my favorite vegetable. I like to buy them in the pod and shell them myself. One dish that I make that’s finished fast at a dinner party is a sauté of cooked peas, diced potatoes, diced onion, and diced prosciutto.
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