More than Us: The Photographers Behind Lavazza's 2024 Calendar
The Lavazza 2024 calendar will feature the work of African artists and photographers Thandiwe Muriu, Aart Verrips and SHOWstudio contributor Daniel Obasi, who have all contributed work under the theme More Than Us.
The Lavazza 2024 calendar will feature the work of African artists and photographers Thandiwe Muriu, Aart Verrips and SHOWstudio contributor Daniel Obasi, who have all contributed work under the theme More Than Us.
Africa is home to the original coffee bean, so it's no surprise Lavazza have called on a roster of promising creatives from the continent to contribute to the company's 2024 calendar, which features a selection of artists that communicate the value of collaboration between people, organisations and ideas in their work.
Interpreted as a choral project by photographers all over Africa, the calendar hones in on three particular creatives: Kenyan native Thandiwe Muriu, South African photographer Aart Verrips and SHOWstudio contributor Daniel Obasi from Nigeria.
More Than Us builds on the 2023 calendar theme, Yes - We're Open, with both ideas going further to explore the beauty of collaboration and cross-contamination while joining forces based on mutual respect to create something much bigger than all of us together.
Lavazza Group Board Member Francesca Lavazza noted in a statement to press:
'Over the years, we have learnt to work together and share objectives, efforts and achievements. Aware that alone we go fast, but together we go further. Through the energy of Africa, the cradle of coffee, we want to reaffirm the Lavazza Foundation's true values and celebrate this intertwining of hands, talents, stories and experiences. Multiple voices singing in unison. Because in the family, as well as in the company, we know that everyone counts, but more importantly, we have learnt to always count on one another'.
As a project, More than Us rewrites the bigoted connotations of Africa as a singularity, turning them on their head by relaying the continent's cultural richness; as seen in all diverse forms. In Thandiwe Muriu's 'Camo' series, protagonists simultaneously stand out by blending into vivid backgrounds patterned with traditional fabrics, while the surrealist world of Daniel Obasi urges us to reflect on the concepts of activism, politics and human relations. As for Aart Verrips? New ideas of beauty are boldly presented, questioning the naive beauty-led philosophy of 'one size fits all'.
According to Michele Mariani, (executive creative director at Armando Testa Group, which has supervised all creative direction for the Calendar), 'The Lavazza Calendar 2024 celebrates the precious value of the collaboration'. Elaborating on this, Mariani continued: 'It does so by taking advantage of all the pulsating energy and creative vitality in the African continent. This energy flows through and is nourished by the inexhaustible resource of cultural diversity. Tackling complex challenges requires the sharing of ideas, talent and respect. And the best ideas are the ones that spring from exchange and contamination because, as we all know, none of us is as clever as all of us put together.'
Despite all works rooted in the medium of photography, their style widely differs from eclectic collage to larger-than-life patterns to surrealist depictions of a world far from this one. If the Lavazza 2024 calendar could speak, it would say beauty is not one-dimensional, nor is photography, and neither is Africa: the breadth of vision and artistic talent on offer included in More Than Us can only serve as a devout testament to this.