📸 Photo Essays

Photo Essay: Mexico

For paid subscribers, photos from my trip to Mexico.

Jenn Chen

16 Oct 2024 — 6 min read

Hi friends,

So I did end up taking a two-week break from writing tanjennts but it was mainly out of necessity. Two weeks ago, I was in Mexico, preparing for my mobile photography workshop at the Bean Voyage Women-Powered Coffee Summit. I had absolutely zero energy left to write or email anything. And immediately after returning from Mexico, I got sick with a bad and very persistent cold. As I write this, I am still sick. I've had to reschedule meetings and my weekend getaway, as well as pause most of my work.

It sometimes seems like I'll build some great momentum in the business and then suddenly get hit with a wall that refuses to crumble. What I've learned while I'm sick, is that the part of my brain that edits photos is not the same as the part that writes. This tracks, since one is very much a visual skill set and the other involves recalling words and stringing them together. So I was able to deliver my last client gallery—but not have the ability to write outreach emails for finding new clients. I had to request an article extension, and it took me 20 minutes to write an email that was only a few sentences long.

I'm also still digesting my time in Mexico and at the conference. I loved being among women in coffee who supported other women in coffee. The prioritization of content that served mostly small women producers (not "small women," but women producers with small lots) was thoughtful. I met people I absolutely would've never met at any other coffee conference. My Spanish was abysmal, though I was able to order some food, and the trip really reinforced my desire to be fluent in the language within the next five years.

Here are some photos from the trip.

Days 1 & 2

It took me two days and three flights to reach Veracruz. Once there, it was another two hours on the bus to arrive in Córdoba. I ate my first-ever room service meal in Mexico City while practicing my workshop and woke up at 5 am with Verve's instant coffee. My friend Erica shared some chips and this very cute snacking handle that the bag came with. While everyone was sleeping on the bus, I took some shots out the window—the landscape was lush and the colors so deeply saturated.

I was absolutely exhausted by the time I got into Córdoba, but I went on a walking tour of the historical city to keep myself awake and occupied. We visited the town center and a candlemaker's shop that had been in his family for generations.

That evening was the opening ceremony. The conference took place at an ex-sugar refinery. The foundations were still around and then built upon to create the venue space. It was gorgeous everywhere you looked.

Day 3

The first full day of the conference included my workshop on mobile photography basics. I'm very proud of the workshop that I created and presented, though I couldn't execute all 80 minutes of content. The interpretation from English to Spanish wasn't simultaneous, as I was expecting. But nonetheless, participants were able to learn the highlights of photo vocabulary, composition, mobile basics, and editing. My friend Rachel was the assigned workshop volunteer and she assembled some amazing tablescapes for people to practice photos on!

Our meals were a feast, and I think I had tacos twice daily.

Day 4

I took more photos out of the bus window. I am not a morning person, but I do love the morning light.

Towards the end of the day, the sky started turning a stormy gray. There were a few minutes when the sun came through the clouds and made for some of my favorite weather conditions for photos—a soft glow against a dark sky.