The official Lavazza  calandar is something of a tradition. For 19 years this historic Italian brand has produced a calendar with a famous photographer and this year it was the turn of Mark Seliger, the famous American celebrity photographer, who was asked to immortalise the essence of Italianess.

His concept was simple – ‘Falling in Love in Italy’.

The calendar has become something of a cult item for collectors and photography enthusiasts from all over the world and has a limited print run of just 30,000.

Through his lens, Seliger reveals the secrets of that timeless image of Italy as the country of love, where beauty, art, nature and history influence and invade our consciousness, leading us almost inevitably towards feelings of love. Six different stories told in a humorous or surreal way, marked out by time: “six intimate moments involving him, her and coffee.”

A Tuscan landscape, the high waters of Venice, Romeo and Juliet’s balcony, the Faraglioni of Capri, a magical Florentine garden, a love story in Naples, the perfect backdrop, adding rhythm and harmony to Seliger’s pictorial tale where the artistic suggestions blend with that quality so typical of an American photographer: a talent for using photographs to capture the mood, and in this case the sensuality, of a particular situation.

“Being a photographer is also about being able to stretch yourself, to make a situation credible, so you can show the connection between people,” explains Mark Seliger. “It’s about making up a story and then telling it, you have to make it real. What made me fall in love with Italy was the ‘combination’ of people, there’s a certain quality of life that makes Italy truly unique.”

Among the models portrayed in the 2011 Calendar, one couple stood out: the American actress Olivia Wilde and her husband, film director Tao Ruspoli, stars of the Capri picture.

“How can you not fall in love with Italy? I’ve never met anyone who hasn’t fallen in love with Italy after visiting it — comments the actress — whether because of the architecture, the people, or even just the food, it’s impossible not to love this country,” she commented on set.

The artistic, glamorous side of Lavazza coffee, revealed in 19 calendars:

1993-4 Helmut Newton

1995 Ellen Von Unwerth

1996 Ferdinando Scianna

1997 Albert Watson

1998 Marino Parisotto

1999 Magnum Photos

2000 Eliott Erwitt

2001 Martine Franck and Richard Kalvar

2002 David LaChapelle

2003 Jean-Baptiste Mondino

2004 Thierry Le Gouès

2005 Erwin Olaf

2006 Ellen Von Unwerth

2007 Eugenio Recuenco

2008 Finlay MacKay

2009 Annie Leibovitz

2010 Miles Aldridge

2011 Mark Seliger

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