The Scent of a Dream: Travels in the World of Coffee (Abrams, $75) is every coffee-table’s dream book. The gorgeous chrome-hued cover signals Sebastião Salgado’s rich black-and-white photography within, and through the course of three-hundred pages and two-hundred-plus images, Salgado sings a visual love song to coffee plantations from Brazil to India to Tanzania to China, to name a few of these lush landscapes, and to the workers who harvest the fruit. The Scent of a Dream is brilliantly curated, edited, and designed by Salgado’s wife, Lélia Wanick Salgado. The collection testifies that this photographer’s heart and lens are steeped in their subject. Born in Brazil, Salgado grew up watching his father transport coffee to neighboring coastal ports, and eventually joined him in the family business. Later, Salgado worked as an economist for the International Coffee Organization, then let his passion for photography find its muse among the plantation fields of his youth. Salgado began crafting this book in 2002, and with it he hopes to teach café aficionados that coffee beans begin cultivation in vibrant lands and cultured hands, far from the grind of baristas and espresso machines. Marc Powers
