Coffe Chronicles

This series began while travelling between Italy, London, and, when lucky, also other places. Like many I found that the best way to say goodbye to friends or colleagues was just a simple chat over a cup of coffee.

These meetups and my interest in how different people spend these 5-30 minutes of ‘peace’ with the world in different ways lead me to start bringing a camera to take an honest portrait of whoever I was meeting.

Some would drink their coffee in the first twenty seconds and only chat afterwards, some would slowly sip it while going through the newspaper and some would chat for so long that their drink wasn’t even hot by the end.

Since some of the meetings happened totally spontaneously I did not always have the same cameras with me but this probably helped to make sure the only common denominator of the photographs is the catch-up that is taking place between myself and the portrayed person. Each and every moment was captured by what I had on me on that day or was able to find with such short-notice: from modern smartphones, to profession- al DSLR to 1980s medium format film cameras and even disposable cameras. After all, the focus wasn’t on the camera. The focus was on being truly present in that moment in time, to be mindful of that exchange and pay close attention to every little detail.

What started off as a simple portrait collection of friends and work meetings became an insight into each and everyone’s subconscious behaviour exhibited during a familiar and effortless activity such as grabbing a cup of coffee with a friend. I have tried and will keep on trying to encapsulate everyone’s little quirks and subtleties as best as I can continuing the series, highlighting what makes them unique and true individuals.