I’m pleased to announce the publication of my series Benificio de Cafe in the current issue of Lenswork Magazine Extended. Lenswork’s print edition has, in my opinion, the finest reproductions of black and white images of any photography magazine out there. And their Extended editions (available on CD and digital download for your iPad) are very nicely crafted digital publications.…
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This is the final installment in my series on the Beneficio de Cafe of Abraham Castillo, shot in Esteli, Nicaragua. (Please view the previous two posts: The First, with introduction, and the Second.) If you’d like to see the series in full, please visit my Fine Art Photography Website. Abraham continued to open his shop and home to me, with…
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Abraham and his family and staff continue to welcome me with open arms to their coffee beneficio here in Esteli, and I continue to be enchanted by the beautiful light, the rustic building, and the hard-working team. And so I continue with my photo essay (view the previous post here), a bit of visual poetry from the highlands of Nicaragua:…
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I spent an afternoon on a local tobacco farm, during harvest, here in Esteli, Nicaragua. While I’m not a proponent of smoking, nonetheless tobacco farming and cigar manufacturing are major enterprises here, and are worthy of investigation. Esteli creates a major part of the cigars manufactured in the world, and grows a rich variety of its own quality cuban-seed tobaccos.…
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Tucked away in a barrio in Esteli, Nicaragua, on the edge of a dry, dusty stream bed, is the family-owned coffee processing company of Abraham Enrique Castillo, Beneficio Centro America. It’s not a large facility, although at one time it was twice its current size, before their land was seized and inhabited by others. Nor is it a high-tech operation. …
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While in Esteli, Nicaragua, I’ve spent several days working with a non-profit called Instituto de Formacion Permanente. Among their many programs, INSFOP offers a Saturday day camp for marginalized youth. They pick the kids up by bus in the city, and drive everyone just past the outskirts of Esteli, to their camp. (Do you remember those schoolbuses we rode in…
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Alberto Gutierrez could be called many things: hermit, farmer, eccentric, recluse, sculptor, folk artist, walking piece of history, national treasure. I don’t know that all of these would be accurate descriptions, but I do know this: he is a talkative, friendly fellow, who loves art, loves poetry, and loves his property in Cerro Jalacate, in the hills of Tisey. Tisey,…
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Now, here is a man who appreciates his craft. I’ve spent a few hours in the Nica Libre cigar factory here in Esteli, getting to know the process of cigar making, and photographing it. While I don’t care for cigars myself, nonetheless, I find the process to be fascinating and the product to be beautiful. And the folks here in…
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The other day, while photographing in a Nicaraguan cigar factory, I noticed in the courtyard several cages containing exotic animals. One contained a cat of some sort, perhaps a lynx or bobcat, pacing his 4-foot square cage. Another contained several parrots. And the third contained 2 capucin monkeys. Monkeys are pretty cute creatures, and strangely familiar. When they came up…
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On the Road Again So I’m sitting on an American Airlines flight between Dallas and Miami, on the way to Nicaragua, reading Nexos, their Spanish-language in-flight magazine. After twenty minutes, my head is already spinning, as I try to recall the meaning of words I haven’t studied in 20 years. I made my way through a third of an article…