LaChapelle shoots 2020 Lavazza calendar 'Earth CelebrAction'

(ANSA) - Venice, October 3 - Nature can still be beauty, a return to the source, a place in which to celebrate the joyous meaning of life, according to David LaChapelle, who shot the photographs for the 2020 Lavazza calendar, "Earth CelebrAction".
    The twelve images immortalise women divinities immersed in the powerful nature of the Hawaiian islands, with mythological visions and pop colours, oceans that suggest an uncontaminated world.
    LaChapelle presented the project on Thursday in Venice together with Francesca Lavazza, a member of the board of the Lavazza Group, as well as Michele Mariani, creative director of the Armando Testa agency, and Denis Curti, director of La Casa dei Tre Oci.
    The project encompasses the willingness to celebrate the power of beauty together with the idea of action, the belief that a human can personally take action to defend the environment.
    This is LaChapelle's third experience with Lavazza, and in it he used the Hawaiian islands as a green curtain for the 12 photographs, to showcase a symbolic tale where the primary elements of fire, water, earth, and air mix in the presence of man.
    The natural scenes of the calendar celebrate the beauty of life and the awareness of the reciprocity of all living things.
    "Earth CelebrAction" brings with it the idea of opening oneself to the earth, in an ideal optimistic reconnection, one that is idyllic and able to look beyond the environmental emergency.
    "I tried to show the magic of nature with fantasy images to create a sort of storybook, an ideal and spiritual way where the problems of climate change and exploitation of resources don't loom," LaChapelle said.
    The message focuses on the positive invitation to reconnect oneself with nature, listening to its needs and saving it from savage exploitation.
    Francesca Lavazza said the evolution of LaChapelle's research towards environmental themes tied to sustainability and environmental protection "seemed to us to meet the evolution of the calendar ideally".
    She said the focus is ideally on "embracing, protecting, hosting".
    "Just as the earth is place and mother, in the same way we also must protect this planet and take care of this human society that lives there," she said.
    This is the third time that Lavazza has chosen LaChapelle as the vehicle for the meaning of its brand, the first time being in 1993 for the first edition of its calendar.
    "Collaborating on Earth CelebrAction was an opportunity to continue on my imaginary journey, set in an idyllic paradise in which man and nature live together in harmony," La Chapelle said.
    "I am grateful for the total freedom of expression that was given to me by a company that I respect and that respects the planet," he said.