Ask Us About Cost of Production is a documentary style photography exhibit designed to provide education and provoke viewer questions about the coffee industry and the way we buy and sell coffee as a commodity. This project focuses mainly on the work of Mike and Caryn Nelson, owners of the Portland-based Micro-Roastery Junior’s Roasted Coffee, and their financial transparency initiative, the Cost of Production Covered Project.
The exhibition consists of a series of inkjet-printed photographs, taken on large and medium format black and white film, presented with accompanying text and testimonials. This exhibition provides viewers with the basic information needed to understand the coffee-buying industry, the aims and goals of the CoPC project, and first-person accounts of participant experiences with the project. Alongside the printed photographs, a small booklet has also been created to ensure continuing education with the content of the documentary. This booklet is designed to be easily reproduced and distributed in JRC cafés, contains all the visual and textual information found in the gallery exhibition.
This project has been created, designed, and managed solely by the photographer, with cooperation from numerous industry professionals in both the coffee and art worlds. Created and designed to be a straight-forward and easy-to understand primer for the Cost of Production project, this exhibition and its accompanying booklet represent a clear mastery of a unique and varied skillset for design, photography, and project management.