PART ONE:

We flew to beautiful Jamaica to photograph Coffee and Sugar Cane.

After and running up to the financial crash in 2008, I became disillusioned with commissioned corporate photography and with help from our advisors, my wife and I began shooting a library collection. We had been fortunate to know a family of Coffee farmers in Jamaica who ran the Twyman Estate high up in the Blue Mountains and they kindly offered to look after us if we came to do a shoot. We also found a sugar cane farm and processing plant which I could shoot as well. Fuelled with Bloody Marys, my friend and top art director Ashley Jouhar jetted across the Atlantic and into another world. We had a producer and a driver.
The coffee farm was at the end of an endless bumpy track with spectacular aerial views of Kingston, which climbed into the clouds and the thin cool air. The main house was precariously built into the mountainside out of ancient timber and you could drink the fabulous coffee whilst looking out onto the clouds with the coffee bushes spread below. Most of our time was spent climbing up and down grassy tracks amongst the happy characterful people picking the incredible red berries. There were some Landrover journeys in the mud to almost inaccessible places. The beans are picked, sorted, left to ferment the outer pulp off, cleaned and then driven down to Kingston where they are dried in the sun. They then get roasted and go back up the mountain for grinding and packing. Blue mountain estate coffee is really special. You can find out more here: http://www.jamaicatravelandculture.com/destinations/the_blue_mountains/old-tavern-coffee-estate.htm

This project was never an art project but a commercial venture and went on to do quite well, still dominating the market. It was all originally in colour and the images are available for sale, all fully released. It was shot on Hasselblad H4d camera kit. It is interesting how Black and White somehow makes photography look so different.
Assistance: The Twyman family     Art direction: Ashley Jouhar