From These Hands: a Journey Along the Coffee Trail

The exhibition of Steve McCurry photographs organized by Lavazza, and endorsed by architect, Fabio Novembre, will begin on the 23rd of September and continue on till the 8th of November at Arsenale Nord, Tesa 113.

The exhibition focuses on 62 photographs taken by McCurry in 12 different countries: Brazil, Burma, Columbia, Ethiopia, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Peru, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Vietnam, Yemen. Fabio Novembre’s display was especially set up in order to convey to the public, the feelings evoked in the photos. McCurry’s photos are always the beginning of a marvellous journey. The exhibition was developed from an idea where an internal labyrinth becomes a place for the visitor to
admire McCurry’s works that are reproduced on panels conceived as pages of an oversized book. The beauty and human nature springing from McCurry’s shots are amplified by the exhibition’s strong scenic, engaging impact, studied and achieved by architect Fabio Novembre.

Common denominator: coffee. In fact, the best and most evocative photos taken by McCurry during a journey lasting more than thirty years along coffee routes have been collected in a publication (with the same name) edited by Phaidon – one of the more important editors of visual and photographic art.

Phaidon’s publication is transformed into an exhibition, which thanks to Lavazza, stops over in Venice. For thirteen years, Lavazza has been at Steve McCurry’s side while he travelled to lands and mingled with people in the “coffee world.” McCurry is the official narrator of iTierra! – a wholly Lavazza-sponsored sustainability project in coffee-producing countries. Apart from being a travel companion, Steve is the special eye-witness reporter, making it a real cultural sustainability project. Thanks to the union of sustainability, photography and culture, McCurry’s precious work helps to explain actions and tasks revolving around the coffee world.

Most of the photographs collected in the book and on show at the exhibition are, in fact, shots taken by McCurry during the iTierra project! They concretise Company Corporate Image Manager- Francesca Lavazza’s idea of reuniting the various human facets and stories in the coffee industry within a work (exhibition). Some of these photos like those taken in Ethiopia and Vietnam – the last two countries involved in the Lavazza sustainability project –
have never been published before. Thanks to some of his more famous shots, like the portrait of the Afghan girl, Steve McCurry is immensely popular, and highly-esteemed not only by experts.