Cooking agave in a fire pit to make mezcal is a hot, smoky process: at once urgent yet tedious, simple yet exhausting. The smoke burns the eyes and lungs of novice and visiting author alike. Some mezcal pits are small and remote, some controlled and modern, some vast and primeval. At La Luna, in Michoacán, the burning room is a huge open-walled chamber filled with fire pits, each bowl as deep as a man and several times as wide. When we visited, the pyres were being built – each in a different stage of readiness, with different layers and patterns. They trapped me in their wild sorcery. Such care paid to a thing that would soon be obliterated, lending its heat to transmute the precious juices of the hundreds of agave that would be sacrificed on their smoke and flame. This was elemental magic made tangible. Calm and knowing and softly foreboding like old mountains and deep waters. While Tristan and Pancho walked on to learn about the unique juicing process and mashing times, I visited each pit in turn, to circle and study them; to tread with camera in-hand amidst their wisdom and silence, before each would soon burn away to nothing but ashes, born once more in fire and smoke.

This large, very limited photograph is one of only three images from our adventure making Tristan Stephenson’s Agave Safari to be released as a print to buy, each in strict edition of only 8. This is a rare slice of a rarer adventure into the heart of the agave.

Each photograph is printed on luscious Hahnemülle Photo-Rag stock, giving them an earthed, almost painterly feel and incredible longevity. My favourite stock for images like these. The border is printed, making them easy to hang either floated or with a window mount in frame-ready sizes. They are signed and numbered. And the price includes free postage within the UK, Europe or the USA.

60×60cm
Unframed
Giclée print on Hahnemülle Photo-Rag paper
Edition of 8
Signed by the artist
Free postage to UK/Europe/USA