Jamie Hawkesworth’s shots of a hunt for a rare, Vietnamese cacao bean

Date
10 November 2014

No one photographs teenagers like Jamie Hawkesworth. For years we’ve been posting about his ability to capture the infinitely curious in-between stage of adolescence, and quietly knowing that he’s the guy who’s currently got the monopoly on this topic. Recently though, alongside shooting youngsters for mags such as AnOther and The New York Times Style, Jamie’s has been lending his skills to some corporate magazines and brands – a far cry from his time roaming the bus shelters of northern England or the Whitby Goth Festival. This year Jamie was approached by Lexus’ magazine Beyond to follow two chocolatiers on a journey into deepest Vietnam on the hunt for a rare cacao bean. Slight change of scenery.

The result of this expedition is a selection of photographs that transfer Jamie’s eye for a grubby, photogenic youth on to the landscapes of a fascinating and rapidly developing country. His somewhat trademark sepia tint comes to life in the dusty landscape, and there’s even a whiff of northern England seeped into the photograph of the cacao bean on the draining board. It could have been so easy to document this trip in a simple, educational way. But this isn’t documentary photography, it’s something much more sublime than that. Here’s to Jamie turning his lens to new things, and to companies like Lexus having the courage and taste to know that he’s the right man for the job.

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Jamie Hawkesworth: The Vietnamese Cacao Trail for Lexus Beyond Magazine

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Jamie Hawkesworth: The Vietnamese Cacao Trail for Lexus Beyond Magazine

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Jamie Hawkesworth: The Vietnamese Cacao Trail for Lexus Beyond Magazine

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Jamie Hawkesworth: The Vietnamese Cacao Trail for Lexus Beyond Magazine

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Jamie Hawkesworth: The Vietnamese Cacao Trail for Lexus Beyond Magazine

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Jamie Hawkesworth: The Vietnamese Cacao Trail for Lexus Beyond Magazine

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Jamie Hawkesworth: The Vietnamese Cacao Trail for Lexus Beyond Magazine

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About the Author

Liv Siddall

Liv joined It’s Nice That as an intern in 2011 and worked across online, print and events, and was latterly Features Editor before leaving in May 2015.

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