The Body Shop Ibn Battuta

[Debra Necochea]

JoelSternfeld is well known for large-format color photographs that extend the tradition of chronicling roadside America initiated by Walker Evans in the 1930s. Sternfeld's projects have consistently explored the possibility of a collective American identity by documenting ordinary people and places throughout the country. Each project he embarks on is bound by a concept that imbues it with subtle irony, often through insightful visual juxtapositions or by pairing images with informational text. Another characteristic aspect of Sternfeld's work is that color is never arbitrary; it functions in highly sophisticated ways to connect elements and resonate emotion.

Coffee was first discovered in Ethiopia in the 9th century when a shepherd noticed heightened energy in his sheep after they ate wild coffee berries. Coffee consumption as we know it was born in the 14th century when roasting began in the Red Sea port of Al- Mokha in what is now modern day Yemen.

IBN Battuta Mall is the largest themed shopping mall in the world, boasting six country-themed courts. Each of the courts is based on the travels of poet and religious inspiration, IBN Battuta. The courts of Tunisia, Egypt, Persia, India, China, and Andalusia, are ornately decorated to embody the culture, style, and history of the countries that they represent.

In each country Battuta visited he recalled the diversity and abundance of goods available. He marveled at merchants and their wares, at the increasingly commercial world before him, at beauty, luxury, and excessive wealth.

The history of commercial coffee is one the developed right alongside the minds of our worldly thinkers. Coffee houses, which initially began in the Middle East, have always been a place of conversation and exchange of ideas.

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