Loading Coffee for the Port, Las Nubes
Eadweard J. Muybridge
American, born England. 1830–1904
1875
An albumen silver print photograph that records workers loading sacks of coffee at the port of Las Nubes, made to document the daily rhythms of labor and the commodity trade in the 1870s.
The low, panoramic view pulls you from a dark, sheltering barn into sunlit activity—wheel-spoked carts, stooped men and a grazing cow are arranged like a quiet, choreographed tableau of weight and motion.
Early in Muybridge’s career, this documentary picture helped show how photography could make visible both the physical mechanics of work and the global networks of commerce, anticipating his later, systematic studies of movement.
Medium
Albumen silver print
Dimensions
5 3/8 × 9 3/16" (13.6 × 23.4 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Transferred from The Museum of Modern Art Library, New York
Accession
182.1964.109
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
