Coffee in Time and Space

AF-S NIKKOR 24–70mm f/2.8G

Coffee touches the lives of approximately 125 million people—from the producers at the bottom of the global coffee supply chain to the exporters of raw coffee beans to the specialty roasters to the marketers to the coffee drinkers. Over 2 billion cups of coffee are consumed globally every single day. The economic gulf between the Global South countries that produces almost all coffee and the Global North that consumes almost all coffee is enormous. Yet inequalities surface not only between the Global North and Global South. They also surface between the consumers within our local Bay Area context.

Coffee has social lives. From exquisite espressos in specialty coffee shops during Sunday brunch in the Mission District to the quick refillable cardboard cups at Safeway’s during the early morning hours near Fisherman’s Wharf– coffee enters the lives of many in different ways. Coffee consumption creates a link that reveals differences and disparities amongst its various consumers locally. This photo series documents the social aspect of coffee’s intersection with the settings and people comprising Silicon Valley—from location to socio-economic background to the hour of consumption. What are people doing when they sip on coffee? Always, going out for coffee implies more than getting a caffeine fix.