PART TWO:

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

 After 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 photo library collection. We were 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 on their coffee farm. 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 from London and into another world. The coffee farm was at the end of what seemed like an endless dusty bumpy track with spectacular aerial views of Kingston. We climbed into the clouds and the thin cool air. The main house was built precariously into the mountainside out of ancient timber and you could drink the fabulous blue mountain 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 Land Rover 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 very well, still dominating the market. It was all originally in colour and the images are still available for sale, (all fully model released). It was shot on Hasselblad H4d camera kit. I find it wonderful how black and white simplifies and directs the messages in pictures. Assistance: The Twyman family Art direction: Ashley Jouhar Text editing: John Coombes

#jamaica

#bluemountain

#coffee