Exhibition of photos revealed with coffee portrays coffee farming in Central America

Tegucigalpa, 14 Mar Thirty photographs developed with coffee make up the exhibition “Expo origen Photo Project”, organized by the Honduran Coffee Institute (Ihcafe) and which since Monday offers a tour of the different processes of coffee growing in Central America. The snapshots taken by photographers from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua will remain in Honduras until March 19 at the Ihcafe headquarters, with support from the social enterprise Raíces Colectivo, based in Nicaragua. The exhibition was opened in Tegucigalpa by the creative director of Raíces Colectivo, Douglas López, the head of promotion of Ihcafe, Karla Calidonio, and the head of the Honduran Higher Coffee School, Mario Ordóñez. Lopez told Efe that the exhibition seeks to “portray coffee farming” in Central America and supporting micro projects of small grain producers in the region. CALL TO ACTION The photographs aim to “raise awareness of the conditions of coffee farmers in Central America and make a call for action so that people can donate and support some projects (small producers) to change very specific realities in the (coffee) sector,” he explained. López said that the exhibition, which has already been in Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua, seeks to make people see “the challenges” that coffee farmers face on a daily basis in the processes of harvesting, benefiting wet and dry and transporting aromatic grains. The black and white images were developed with “Caffenol 505", a compound based on instant coffee, vitamin C, salt and bicarbonate that replaces the traditional chemical developer, he said. “All the photographs were developed with coffee, we thought it was the best connection between art and coffee, and to emphasize the experimental substance of development, they have been very good,” he emphasized. The analogue photographs, taken between March and May 2021, represent “the real conditions and challenges of coffee production in Central America” after the post-global crisis due to the covid-19 pandemic, according to Ihcafe and Raíces Colectivo. SAME CAMERA, WITH A DIFFERENT LOOK The images were taken with the same camera, which traveled through the five countries, but with a different “look and perspective”, and aims to generate a “new vision of life on the farms” of the region, Calidonio told Efe. The exhibition seeks to “raise awareness about the life and work of (coffee) producers,” stressed Calidonio, who said that the activity also includes a workshop on painting with grain. On the photographic developer with coffee, the Ihcafe expert noted that it shows that the bean “is not only taken, it is used for other things”. The exhibition is a “springboard” to present the crowdfunding platform with a hundred initiatives that seek to generate an impact on Central American coffee farming, for which they require funding or donations, according to the organizers. The photographs will also be exhibited in Boston (Massachusetts) at “a coffee expo” on April 8-10. The Ihcafe will pay tribute to Honduran coffee with a museum that aims to trace the history of the so-called “golden bean”, from its cultivation to its transfer and subsequent roasting, the director of the Higher School of Coffee told Efe. CHIEF ac/laa (video)