"This project instantly reminded me of Fellini".
Miles Aldridge talking on set, at the Cinecittà studios in Rome, about the Lavazza Calendar.

"Through the music, melodies and arias I glimpsed stories that told bittersweet tales, dramas, rebirths. I was reminded of characters and stories from films like La Strada and La Dolce Vita".

Even the six Calendar models are strong-willed heroines.
"I didn't just want six beautiful girls. I wanted six women who could prove they were larger than life".

The life of Aldridge (married with four children and living in London) is all about light and colour. "I can draw inspiration from anything: a bright red garage in Soho, a woman wearing a green coat crossing the street. The fabulous orange in pictures by Francis Bacon or a palette of colours put together by the Wizard of Oz".

Aldridge prefers artificial shades: phosphorescent yellow, bubblegum pink, the bright green of imitation grass, and deep blue - not sky-blue or the marine blue found in wall frescoes, but the unidentifiable blue of an air hostess's uniform, or the blue of Italy's national football team.
 

He also draws great inspiration from early colour films: "I love the way that Technicolor has always broken everything down into areas of pure colour, giving the shadows a brilliant shade of blue".

Aldridge is a photographer who loves the tension between opposites. It is no coincidence that the term "Futuretrò" has been coined to define his style.

To give you an idea of the futuristic side, think of fluorescent colours and hermetically-sealed surfaces like leather, plastic or fabric. For the retro side, think of pale housewives with bright red lipstick, daydreaming as they bake fairy cakes, or girls from the 1940s on their first trip to Paris.

The pictures are complex scenes portraying bored, unfulfilled women with a ghostly pallor and enchanting beauty, captured and immortalised on film.

Aldridge has never given into digital temptation. Although known for his retouching ability, most of his effects come from the light and colour already available in the studio.

The penetrating, expressive sketches produced before each shot are another feature of Aldridge's work. Karl Lagerfeld and Gerhard Steidl have gathered them together in a book, "Pictures for Photographs".

Aldridge's work has been published in the New York Times, The New Yorker and Vogue Italia, publications with whom he collaborates regularly.