Photographing Black Baza’s first Coffee Habba (habba=festival) held earlier in October has been one of my most memorable assignments of 2023. It was a renewal of my ties with the Soliga coffee growers of the Biligirirangana Hills since the time I created the first set of visuals in 2017. My last visit to the community was before the pandemic in 2018, when I rode my motorbike up the hills, and to now witness their quiet transformation was heartwarming.
The Coffee Habba was appropriately held at Yerakanagadde hamlet where some of the first coffee in the region was grown, and celebrated with men and women who toil hard to produce the beans. It was also an opportunity for the community to know more about the lifecycle of their produce and get a taste of the coffee that eventually makes it to our cups down in the plains below.