This illy collection is one of the elements of "In principio", a project which marks the beginning of the collaboration between the great Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado and illy, with the aim of enhancing the value of the men and women who grow coffee and the contribution their work makes to the quality of the illy blend.
The meeting with illy has resulted in a photographic journey, which began in Brazil, through the lives of the plantation workers in that country. After Brazil, the journey will continue in other places which supply the company with its raw material, including India, Guatemala and Ethiopia. The cup and saucer show one of the photographs from the reportage Sebastião Salgado took in 2002 in Brazil, on the first leg of the In Principio journey. In Principio marks the beginning of the collaboration between illycaffè and the great Brazilian humanist photographer. They share an idea of sustainable development and wish to use images to narrate the work and lands of coffee growers. This photographic journey continues in a different country each year. In Brazil, Salgado pays tribute to his country, and illycaffè to the country where it purchases most of the best Arabica coffee for its single blend and where it first experimented a new way of collaborating with growers and of improving the quality of coffee with them. Salgado’s black and white images also travel, across various media: books, shows, cups and the 2005 publicity campaign. This cup was produced to coincide with the exhibition held at the Rome Auditorium in the summer of 2003.