Coffee Harvesting, Las Nubes-Guatemala 1875

Eadweard Muybridge created this albumen silver print titled *Coffee Harvesting, Las Nubes-Guatemala.* This photograph provides a glimpse into the global commerce of the late 19th century and the labor that sustained it. It also captures the complex, and fraught relationship between the West and Central America. Here we see a regimented scene of indigenous workers, including women and children, harvesting coffee beans, their figures blend into the landscape and under the meticulous eye of Muybridge. Consider the colonial dynamics at play, where the artist, a Westerner, documents the labor of Guatemalan people in service of an industry driven by Western consumption. It's impossible not to consider the racial and economic power structures inherent in this transaction. While seemingly a straightforward depiction of labor, the image hints at the exploitation and erasure of individual identities within the machinery of global capitalism. It serves as a reminder of the human cost embedded in our daily rituals.