The 2012 Lavazza Calendar Reunites 12 Masters of Photography.

above: cover for 2012 Lavazza Calendar by Ellen von Unwerth

The 2012 Lavazza Calendar


The Lavazzers is the name of the twentieth edition of the Lavazza Calendar, which in celebration of such an important event reunites 12 of the masters of photography that helped to make the Lavazza Calendar such a success over the years: Erwin Olaf, Thierry Le Gouès, Miles Aldridge, Marino Parisotto, Eugenio Recuenco, Elliott Erwitt, Finlay MacKay, Mark Seliger, Annie Leibovitz, Albert Watson, David LaChapelle, Ellen von Unwerth.



They put themselves enthusiastically into play, celebrating their most intimate relationships with the Lavazza coffee through self-portraits. The 12 photographers, just like any closely knit team, were led by the Armando Testa agency, which was in charge of producing also this edition of the Lavazza Calendar and was art-directed by Fabio Novembre. The photographers interpreted themselves in innovative, unusual and imaginative shots.

January:

ERWIN OLAF
LOCATION: Studio Erwin Olaf, Amsterdam
PHOTOGRAPHER ASSISTANTS: Wouter van Gens, Alessandro Pisano
STYLISTS: Monica Petit & Maartje Wevers
MAKE-UP ARRIST: Annemiek Bohnenn
SET DESIGN: Floris Vos
MODELS: Tabarra Diop, Irene Hoek, Jason King, Sefton Clarke, Chantal Hanse, Lotte Valk
POST PRODUCTION: Wieger Poutsma, Fisk-Imaging

February:

THIERRY LE GOUÈS
LOCATION: Upper East Studio, Paris
PHOTOGRAPHER ASSISTANT: Benoit Palluel
MAKE-UP ARTIST: Audrey Gautier
MODEL: Sahara Koné
POST PRODUCTION: Bepong

March:

MILES ALDRIDGE (see Miles Aldridge's 2010 Lavazza calendar)
LOCATION: Big Sky Studios, London
PHOTOGRAPHER ASSISTANTS: Benjamin Madgwick, Tom Moran, Daniel Smith
STYLIST: Cathy Kasterine
MODEL: Ruby Aldridge
HAIR STYLIST: Kerry Warn
MAKE-UP ARTIST: Alice Ghendrih
SET DESIGN: Andy Hillman
POST PRODUCTION: Tapestry

April:

MARINO PARISOTTO
LOCATION: Alassio
PHOTOGRAPHER ASSISTANT: Silvio Repetto
STYLIST: Maky Hanykova
HAIR STYLIST & MAKE-UP ARTIST: Gianni Di Muro
MODELS: Katerina, Kristina H, Olena, Tereza
COSTUMES: La Perla, Verde Veronica, Verdissima, Via Uno, Mario Valentino, Sartoria De Valle

May:

EUGENIO RECUENCO
LOCATION: Eric Dover Studio, Madrid
PHOTOGRAPHER ASSISTANTS: Pedro Galan, Dani Torres, Camilo Germain
STYLIST: Eugenio Recuenco
HAIR STYLIST & MAKE-UP ARTIST: Lewis Amarante
SET DESIGN: Eric Dover
POST PRODUCTION: Paz Otero, Focal Imagen

June:

ELLIOTT ERWITT
LOCATION: Central Park, New York City
PHOTOGRAPHER ASSISTANT: Mio Nakamura

July:

FINLAY MACKAY (see Finlay Mackay's 2008 Lavazza calendar)
LOCATION: Film Plus Studios, London
PHOTOGRAPHER ASSISTANT: Jake Green
MAKE-UP ARTIST: Bill Turpin
SET DESIGN: Matt Duddleston
POST PRODUCTION: Box New York

August:

MARK SELIGER (see Mark Seliger's 2011 Lavazza calendar)
LOCATION: Mark Seliger Studio, New York City
HAIR STYLIST: Zaiya Latt
MAKE-UP ARTIST: Regine Thorre
MODEL: Misty Copeland
POST PRODUCTION: Printed at Norkin Digital Art, Ltd

September:

ANNIE LEIBOVITZ (see Annie Leibovitz' 2009 Lavazza calendar)
LOCATION: Plano, Illinois

October:

ALBERT WATSON
LOCATION: 69 Gansevoort Street, New York City
HAIR STYLIST & MAKE-UP ARTIST: Trevor Bowden
MODEL: Breaunna

November:

DAVID LACHAPELLE
LOCATION: Hana, Hawaii
PHOTOGRAPHER ASSISTANTS: Drew Dawson, Tyson Lee Smyer, Jacob Schmidt
HAIR STYLIST: Larry McDaniel
MAKE-UP ARTIST: Sharon Gault
SET DESIGN: Henric Nieminen

December:

Inside back cover:

ELLEN VON UNWERTH
LOCATION: Chez Regine, Paris
PHOTOGRAPHER ASSISTANTS: Joris Rossi, Yvan Gherman, Jerome Vivet
STYLIST: Joanna Schlenzka
HAIR STYLIST: Ed Moeland
MAKE-UP ARTIST: Cathyanne McAllister
MODEL (COVER): Valerie van der Graaf

CALENDAR CREDITS
SUPERVISION & COORDINATION
Lavazza Corporate Image - Advertising Department
CREATIVE PROJECT: Armando Testa
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Michele Mariani
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Andrea Lantelme
COPYWRITER: Federico Bonenti

CON TE PARTIRO’ CREDITS
ART DIRECTION: Fabio Novembre
CATALOGUE: Onlab
PROJECT MAPPING: Apparati Effimeri
DIGITAL PROJECT: Neotokio!
POST PRODUCTION: Garret Suhrie
PHOTOGRAPHER ASSISTANTS: Nick Rogers, Matthias Gaggl

The Exhibit
The 2012 Lavazza Calendar is accompanied by an exhibition at the Triennale di Milano – Teatro dell’Arte which takes a look at all the Lavazza calendars for the past 20 years:

The exhibit and installation, LAVAZZA CON TE PARTIRO’, was also art directed by Fabio Novembre and includes the following:

all information and images courtesy of Lavazza and Fabio Novembre

View an interactive look at 20 years of Lavazza calendars here

The Lavazza 2008 Calendar: A Most Majestic Experience

If you didn't know, Lavazza of Italy produces a calendar that celebrates their brand and their product (espresso) every year. And it's no ordinary 'corporate calendar'. This is always a piece of stunning photographic art. Every year.

They've used an impressive stable of photographers. Coincidentally, the past three years happen to have used three of my personal favorites; Eugenio Recuenco, Erwin Olaf and Ellen Von Unwerth, which is how I even discovered Lavazza and their calendars in the first place. The infamous Helmut Newton shot the first calendar in 1993 for them. And well-known photographers David LaChapelle and Albert Watson have also shot the Lavazza calendar in the past.



This year's calendar theme is "The Most Majestic Experience". Models posing as aristocratic regal "queens' amongst luxury and animals. Shot by Finlay Mackay


Above: Photographer Finlay Mackay


The 2008 Calendar:

Above: the Cover, January~February


Above: March~April

Above: May~June

Above: July~August

Above: September~October

Above: November~December

In addition to creating a pretty piece of functional art, Lavazza's flash site for this year's calendar is a sight to see- and hear. Beautifully designed and easy to navigate, it's filled with goodies. Both a written and narrated story introduces you to each of the "queens" in the calendar:



And you get peek at the actual shoot, both in stills (as seen below) and a video (seen at the end of this post).





And they even have an online contest, Majestic Mahong, you can play and be automatically entered to win a 2008 Calendar or more.

So be sure to check it out when you have some time, because there's so much to see on their site.

In Lavazza's own words, The 16th edition of the Lavazza Calendar, is dedicated to important, aristocratic and determined women, women who feel like queens - in other words, all women. It shows an enchanted and precious world in which queens are surrounded by jewellery, silk, velvet and freely roaming animals proudly reign.

See the new 2008 calendar for yourself here.

Below is Finlay Mackays's tv spot for Lavazza 2008. Please be patient while it loads.



The Most Majestic Experience.
I want to credit all the right people for this wonderful work, and luckily for me, the fabulous client director at Armando Testa has furnished me with a list of the talented people involved on this project.

CREDITS 2008 LAVAZZA CALENDAR / THE MOST MAJESTIC ESPRESSO EXPERIENCE

Supervision & coordination: Luigi Lavazza S.p.A.
Creative project: Armando Testa
Creative directors: Michele Mariani, Germán Silva, Haitz Mendibil, Ekhi Mendibil
Art director: Andrea Lantelme
Copywriter: Cristiano Nardò
Photographer: Finlay MacKay
Assistant photographer: Christopher George, Alick Crossley
Agent: Marco Santucci Photography
Production Company: The Box Films
Set designer: Robin Brown
Costume designer: Moritz Junge
Stylist: Hannah Teare
Hair stylist: James Rowe
Make-up artist: Hiromi Ueda
Post production: Core Digital
Models/animals/etc:
Cover: Sofie Nielander
Queen Vanalika II: Maria Dvirnik
Davidina (Monkey, trained by Daniel Berquinì)
Queen Bao: Xiuli Gao (Queen)
Katsuya Tatsumoto (Painter)
Queen Sophie Margot: Sofie Nielander (Queen)
Massimo Viafora, Fabio Zerba (Servants)
Evija Petuhova (Harlequin)
Queen Yasmine: Anna Sjoberg (Queen)
Men: Silvio Biolcati, Luca Andolfo, Attila Fernec Csiszler
Women: Evija Petuhova, Paula Ludwig
Queen Kuk Grethel: Cicely Telman (Queen)
Falcon from Zoo Grunwalt s.r.l.
Queen Melissa III: Awoi Mac Bullen Geu (Queen)
Men: Luca Andolfo, Attila Fernec Csiszler, Niklas Erik Daniel Crlsson, Andrew Demarsh, Morgan Pieter, Augustin Grunefeld Lance Brolin Wuchterl, Trevor Pedrowski, Milan Gogora, Silvio Biolcati, Manuele Barbaglio, Fabio Rizzo, Giovanni Fortunato
Giorgio Colnaghi, Daniele D’Andrea
Special thanks to: Damiani jewels & Vivienne Westwood

You can see all the past years' calendars by going here.

To buy a calendar, you'll have to check ebay- they don't sell them to the public!