The Grand Tour was not just a trip: it became the great formative journey that young European aristocrats aspired to at the end of the seventeenth century, an introductory journey aimed at broadening horizons, refining taste, and shaping character. Italy – with its cities steeped in history, its landscapes capable of stopping time and its inexhaustible artistic heritage – was a must-visit place. Centuries later, this same fascination with Italian settings and the aesthetic traditions they contain captivated photographer Alex Webb (San Francisco, 73) when he was commissioned to shape the Lavazza 2026 calendar.
Known for his exuberant images, in which gesture, light and color build scenes of great visual power, he is one of the most famous street photographers of recent decades and a member of the prestigious Magnum agency since 1979. Thus, he began his journey through Italy with the willingness to abandon his lightness. Sweet life Very rooted in the idea of country: let yourself be dazzled by a style that celebrates fun, beauty, elegance, sociability and fun. The same philosophy that reflects the slogan under which the new calendar of the famous coffee brand is presented: “Pleasure makes us human.”
Always attentive to the unexpected moment—a simple gesture, a chance encounter, or the ordinary life pulsing beneath the surface—Webb works with what appears before him. It is possible that some moving balloons will cross the children’s toy next to Lake Como. The silent exchange of glances between some young women and the plaster sculptures in A Gypsothica Milano, whose forms contain the memory of bodies that no longer exist; Or even the distance between the balls during a game of bocce.
“In a collaborative process like this, once we delve deeper into the situation and when the contours of what is happening in the scene are more or less established, everything suddenly becomes more serendipitous,” the photographer explains during an interview with El Pais newspaper. “I try to photograph while the action is happening, looking for those moments that are fundamentally uncertain. I never know when people will meet others or how it will happen, and it is precisely this uncertainty that works best, because it reflects the sense of unpredictability that life has.” It is precisely this interest in the unexpected that fueled Webb’s vision as a street photographer.
Skilled at weaving visual fragments full of rhythm, Webb composes images composed of multiple layers that act as a sum of different experiences occurring at the same moment. Thus, in his pictures there is always plenty of room for mystery: they contain more questions than answers. “It’s the way I see the world,” he says. “I see it as a complex, mysterious and worrying place at the same time. In general, I feel confused about what is happening today, especially in my country, but I am always fascinated by the coexistence of many different things at the same time. I feel that the older I get, the more technical knowledge I gain, and the more experiences and sensations I accumulate, the less I know.”
In every picture in the calendar, there seems to be a hidden joy, hidden in the daily routine, a moment of lightness and abandonment of simple pleasures. “Lightness is not synonymous with superficiality,” Francesca Lavazza, a member of the Lavazza Group’s board of directors, recalled during the calendar presentation in Milan.
This approach is also often reflected in the concept of beauty, a term inevitably associated with Italy, which goes beyond the merely aesthetic. “Beauty is a word that is difficult to define,” says the artist, who prefers to talk about “echoes” to describe his photographs. Throughout his career, he has deeply explored everyday life and the humanity that inhabits it, revealing with his camera the fierce struggle for survival and the magic of fleeting moments. However, he admits: “There is an aesthetic touch, almost inevitable, in most of my work.” He adds: “My work usually has a complex beauty, not necessarily the beauty of a postcard. I think the world is complex, beauty is complex, and emotions are complex.” “I don’t think there is such a thing as pure beauty, it is always subtle or changed by additional feeling.”
In Webb’s work, each image represents an unexpected encounter with life, a moment that reveals the richness and complexity of our surroundings. The Lavazza 2026 calendar reflects his inquisitive eye and his ability to capture silent stories: small moments that invite the viewer to stop and enjoy the pleasure of the ordinary.