A great photo captures not just an image, but an essence. And the most powerful photos are so effective at that task that you can practically taste, smell, and touch their subjects.
Celebrating that essence is one reason AFAR hosts the AFAR Photo Awards each year. This year, these awards are being inspired by illy, the Italian coffee company founded in 1933 that produces its world-renowned 100% Arabica blend of nine distinct origins.
That’s why this year, when you submit a photo to the Style & Design section of the AFAR Photo Awards, you’ll be entered to win a prize, including products from illy.
The depth of illy’s connection to art and style run deep and go beyond its coffee to encompass all of its products. Espresso cups, home capsule machines, even its coffee cans—everything has been carefully crafted with a design sensibility that has contributed to making illy an iconic brand. From the Venice Biennale to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, illy’s ongoing passion for contemporary art has encompassed many institutions, exhibits, and artists—and now includes its support of the AFAR Photo Awards.
A Lens into Beauty One of those artists is photographer Maurizio Galimberti. Born in Como, Italy in 1956, Galimberti discovered Polaroid in the 1980s and embraced the format’s instant aspect—then took it to a whole new level by arranging images into a photo-mosaic. He may use just a few photos or as many as 100 to create a single piece of art. His subjects range from people and landscapes to architecture and cities, and it was while traveling through Paris, Lisbon, Berlin, New York, and Italy that he developed his vision of describing places through images.
Galimberti brings these representations of the contemporary world to life with a unique energy, thanks to the instant nature of the images, which makes them all the more authentic. By recording the beauty as well as the imperfections, he creates a deeper window into the subject, truly capturing its essence.
Your Window to the World Since 1992, the illy Art Collection has fused art with the beauty and goodness found within a cup of illy coffee.
Now, you can enjoy Galimberti’s images of Italy as you savor your morning coffee, thanks to the AFAR Photo Awards and illy. The Maurizio Galimberti illy Art Collection is perfect for anyone consumed by wanderlust and dreaming of walking the streets of Trieste, Venice, Rome, Pisa, Florence, and Milan; images of those gorgeous cities are uniquely displayed on these porcelain cups, which are numbered and signed by the artist.
So get inspired with your morning coffee ritual (it’s one way to #livehappily), channel your inner artist, and choose your most stylish photos to enter in the AFAR Photo Awards!
Submit your photos to afar.com/photoawards and choose the Style & Design category presented by illy!
