Lavazza Calendar 2026: Alex Webb’s Dolce Vita captures beauty in chaos

“Coffee is a spark; it’s always the beginning of something,” says Francesca Lavazza, board member of the Lavazza Group, introducing the latest calendar from the Turin-based brand—a story that began in 1993 with a collaboration between Helmut Newton and Giuseppe Lavazza, the company’s president since 2023. Pleasure Makes Us Human—the title of the 2026 edition—brings together the threads of this history, featuring Alex Webb: a chameleon-like photographer whose work spans survival struggles in South America, photojournalism in Mexico and the Caribbean, and luxury brand campaigns.

At 73, the Magnum photographer has created one of the brand’s most complex—and unexpected—calendars. The brief was simple in words but challenging in spirit: “to give a new sense of Italian-ness,” a project realized in collaboration with Armando Testa. “I've thought for many years that Italians seem to know how to live better than most of us“, Webb begins.

Scarves sway dramatically as a group of priests plays bocce, echoing Mario Giacomelli’s iconic photographs of young seminarians playing soccer in the snow. Webb’s images are, naturally, more contemporary and richly colored: one young man grabs a quick coffee by the fence, another espresso rests on a sage-green table, while sun-kissed hands dunk focaccia—a clear nod to Liguria.

Alex Webb

And then there are barbers, restaurateurs, sculptors, models, grandmothers, sunbathers, homes, offices, and streets. Everyone is in motion, compositions are chaotic, people occupy multiple planes. Diversity feels almost like a scene from Bridgerton. There is no single protagonist here. Long shadows from Italian buildings stretch across the vibrant walls of small towns. “In the summer, in the early morning, in the late afternoon, there is this rich golden light that subfuses seeds,” Webb recalls, thinking of moments spent shooting under the blazing sun of the Dolce Vita—Fellini’s vision in the eponymous film being his only explicit reference when asked about his idea of Italy.

“We wanted to move beyond the usual, overexposed Italian icons,” says Michele Mariani, creative director at Armando Testa, collaborating with Lavazza since 2021. The team embarked on an exhaustive scouting process, seeking fresh perspectives on Italy’s landscapes, towns, and people. “Our idea of the Dolce Vita is found in village squares, empty piazzas, bars, bocce courts, ferries to islands, and local festivals,” Mariani explains. The journey spans the entire country—from Piedmont to Sicily. “Some locations I’ve carried in my mind since my first visit to Italy at age five,” Webb says. Others emerged from TikTok research and the creative suggestions of Armando Testa, who handled much of the project’s staging. The result: a Liberty-style barber shop in Genoa’s historic “carruggi,” long-lost Milanese workshops, ferries departing Elba, and Palermo celebrating the blend of sacred and profane.

Webb’s photography is almost situationalist: the focus is less on the subject than on its movement, intentions, and the potential for what might happen next—a spark of unpredictability, even on a brand set. “I tried to sort of set up situations that had a certain kind of level of energy, of vibrancy,” he says, “both in terms of color and in terms of what was happening.”

Gestures and movements appear chaotic yet intentional. Webb still defines himself as “a street photographer.” Capturing beauty in chaos is the thread connecting his career, spanning contradictions, photojournalism, and commercial projects. “Even though these photographs require models and considerable planning, there are often serendipitous moments that emerge during the process. And that, I believe, is what makes them special,” he concludes.

Alex Webb

Like Paolo Sorrentino’s intricately layered Neapolitan films, the real protagonist—the reason the story exists—is always surrounded by countless other stories. “It’s nice that our coffee, our cup, has to be found in the chaos,” Mariani adds, referencing the contemporary desire to decentralize the product.

Webb’s belief that Italians know how to truly live emerges from childhood visits to Florence’s Uffizi Galleries, accompanying his father on business trips. There, amid the beauty and history of Italy, he discovered coffee as a social spark and a source of pleasure. This notion might be challenged by Italians themselves; Italy’s architectural and cultural diversity is far richer than any single narrative. Yet the calendar is not aimed at Italians—it is a curated “treasure hunt” for Italian-ness, avoiding clichés only through Webb’s mastery of light, color, and situation.

“We know photography can tell anything, express anything,” says Francesca Lavazza. In this edition, Italian-ness is constructed through Webb’s vision: outlined on a café table and carried forward in the metaphor of coffee. Current relevance is secondary; what matters is that it feels “dolce”—sweet.

Since its 1993 debut as a corporate gift and communication tool, the Lavazza Calendar has stood out for its creative boldness, starting with Helmut Newton’s black-and-white imagery in the first two editions. Later, Magnum photographers took it worldwide, and from the early 2000s it embraced color, with artists like David LaChapelle, Annie Leibovitz, Marino Parisotto, Steve McCurry, and Erwin Olaf contributing. Today, it is a collectible object in contemporary photography. From kitchens and living rooms to bedrooms, it represents a long-standing union of coffee and culture. Every year, Lavazza invites a photographer to populate the calendar with their vision; last year it was French-Senegalese artist Omar Victor Diop.

The launch of Pleasure Makes Us Human took place at a high-profile venue, Art Basel Miami Beach, cementing its status as an artistic product. This year, the fair coincided with Design Miami, linking modern art and design in a global showcase.