Appetite

Scroll far enough online and you’ll find burger photography that’s designed to hurt. Matthew Ramsey’s work is like that—stacked patties, cheese bleeding, sauce that looks like it has a life expectancy measured in seconds. The names are part of the seduction: The Dirty Birdy, The Mac Daddy, The Merman. Not trying to sound refined. Just trying to make you want something.

I’m not even that into burgers, but something in those photographs gets to you. The lack of pretense maybe. These aren’t heritage beef on artisanal grain presented by someone with a beard and opinions about sourdough fermentation. They’re just meat and cheese and fried components stacked as high as they’ll go, which is the only honest thing a burger can be.

The funny part is knowing you want the image more than you want to eat it. The burger will be too salty, too much, probably a mess. It’ll sit wrong in your stomach. But at midnight, scrolling, it doesn’t matter. The photograph has already done its job.