Back at the café: on Lavazza’s 2023 calendar shot by American photographer Alex Prager
The Hindu
Celebrating the world opening up is Lavazza’s 2023 calendar shot by Alex Prager and a book by Italian architect Fabio Novembre
After calendars centred on the pandemic, and global warming, Lavazza returns with one to celebrate the world opening up after a series of lockdowns. Themed on YES! we’re OPEN, in the 2023 edition, ‘the bar is a place both real and metaphorical’, an ambience that American photographer Alex Prager recreates through her stunning visuals. The theme, says the brand, is ‘Lavazza embracing a message conveyed by bars and cafés at all latitudes, and is a neighbourly invitation to come in and enjoy an experience of pleasure and conviviality’.
Alongside the calendar, there is also a book by Italian architect Fabio Novembre that highlights the last 10 years of the calendar’s ‘focus on environmental and social sustainability’. “The journey that has taken Lavazza around the world in recent years could only be described in one way: like a travel diary. A book of pages ideally yellowed by time, a stained object, made of sketches and glued photos, which almost seems to have crossed all the continents where Lavazza has brought its commitment and its photographers,” says Fabio.
This, year, we speak to Alex on shooting for the 2023 edition, drawing parallels with pop culture and more:
How is the 2023 edition of the Lavazza calendar different from earlier ones?
I wanted to first go back to the roots of calendars by focussing on making beautiful images that could stand on their own, be viewed as independent artworks. By making beautiful images with themes around humanity and connection we are naturally inclined to reflect on social themes. I think they have the potential to allow us to reflect on the world and ourselves and what it is to be human today.
What does the theme signify?
We spoke a lot about what they wanted to depict around this idea of being open, how it relates to the cafe literally and to a state of mind, figuratively, I found many ways to express this in my own style and it was exciting to jump into this project with them because they themselves were so open too which made lots of room for me to have free creative expression.
