Coffee. Coffee. Coffee. The Ethiopian way. Freshly roasted over fire, smashed with a homemade mortar and pestle. Served three times, each brew slightly weaker (The first one blew my socks off)
Have you ever read This Is Your Mind On Plants by Michael Pollen? I found the chapter of caffeine the most fascinating. It was banned in much of Europe (while opium was still legal) because governments thought it was a drug that encouraged unrest and radical thought amongst the proletariat. If I remember correctly Pollen even suggests that caffeine is partly responsible for the Industrial Revolution - effecting productivity and our ability to work long hours, concentrate on complex tasks like accounting, and work through the night etc. Before tea and coffee breaks workers would stop for beer or wine breaks (water often wasn’t safe to drink) and would be half pissed by the afternoon.
Anyway. An homage to coffee. What a pleasure to experience it like this. ✨👀🙏☕️✨
I guess today would be a good day to reshare this film I made in 2019 which features Sir David Attenborough’s powerful call to action to world leaders about climate change, along with the letter he wrote in reply to my request for permission to use his voice.
Thank you David, for all you have given us during your 100 years on this earth, and happy birthday!
“Leaders, you must lead!” As valid now as it was then.
Full uncropped film in my reels 🫶
Music by Hiatus ✨🙏✨
@davidattenborough ✨✌️✨
A favourite corner of the home planet. Of all the places I’ve travelled I still find the pull of home the strongest, and the beaches on the coast of the South West UK are amongst the most beautiful I’ve seen.
Like many people on here, I find it a bit mad that we only have one day a year dedicated as Earth Day. But I appreciate the sentiment and I value this place more every minute I’m here. Watching the moon missions, as amazing as they are, only reinforces that feeling for me. Why would you want to leave this planet? Why do people want to go to Mars when we have a literal paradise under our feet? Why are we sleepwalking into a climate catastrophe? Can’t help but come to the conclusion that humans are mad apes with a superiority complex ✨🌿👀🖤🙏🌍✨
After an afternoon on the beach with friends I arrived at the next bay along (my favourite in Cornwall) just before the sun set and watched two ecstatic surfers trading empty waves. The colours changed around them as the new swell filled in. The world spun and the sun dipped to the horizon. Plumes of spray from the offshore wind arched from each wave and seemed to catch fire - tinted gold, then pink in the fading sunlight. I could now barely make out the figures in the water. The temperature dropped with the light and I was getting ready to go home when my old pal @nickpumphreyphoto emerged from the pathway with another surfer. I’d been watching an old friend ride those backlit pulses of swell. After making a couple of shivery portraits with Nick, I set off home to watch the Artemis II crew fly around the back of the moon. Apart from the parking ticket earlier, I’d say it was a perfect day
✨🌊🌙👀🩵✨
When I took this photo I imagined it in black & white. Now I’m not so sure. Which do you prefer?
West Kernow last week, as a new swell started to show.
Another set from a collection of images I called ‘What Matters Most’ of people, homes and landscape affected by a wildfire in and around Malibu, 2018.
See previous two posts for a more lengthy captions.
Thanks for the reminder about these images @welooksideways@jamiebrisick ✨🙏🖤✨
Images from a collection called ‘What Matters Most’, a title stolen from a Charles Bukowski book ‘What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk Through The Fire’.
These images were all made in Malibu in the spring of 2019 a few months after the devastating Woolsey Fire. People were returning to where their homes had once stood to recover belongings, to clear the land and start to rebuild their lives.
It was a very humbling experience to see the destruction, meet some of the residents and speak about their experience. Very difficult to photograph and impossible to communicate the emotion and weight of it all on those affected. Simultaneously Spring was if full bloom, the earth and plants were starting to regenerate and regrow. The contrast was dramatic and jarring, completely awe inspiring to se the resilience of nature, and of people.
Hard to know what else to say really. Since then another devastating wildfire has burnt through the area. I know these fires are part of the history of the area but it’s clear that climate change is making them worse. I recommend reading @jamiebrisick ‘s recent piece about his experience of the fires. It’s called ‘The Inferno’, you can find it via his substack and there’s a link in my stories.
