The much-awaited Pirelli calendar has deviated vastly from its reputation of featuring glamour and beauty in its most obvious form — with a healthy dose of nudity involved. The 2017 version goes a step further from Anne Liebovitz’s 2016 study of nakedness that featured personalities such as Yoko Ono, Ava DuVernay and Amy Schumer.
Shot by German photographer Peter Lindbergh, the 2017 calendar features women stripped of the façade of make-up and any form of glamour; just true beauty. The 44th edition titled ‘Emotion’ features 14 award actresses like Alicia Vikander, Uma Therman, Julianne Moore, Kate Winslet, Nicole Kidman, Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Penelope Cruz, Helen Mirren, Robin Wright and Charlotte Rampling.
The idea was to present the kind of un-retouched beauty that is not found on the screen or on the pages of a glossy magazine. Lindbergh felt that these women are media’s ambassadors for youth and perfection and he wanted to show the more truthful kind of beauty that is not tampered by any commercial interest.
Photographing these women in black and white, he wanted to “capture the sensitivity and emotion laying bare the souls of the women in the images, rendering them more naked than nude,” as he said at the launch of the calendar in Paris.
The calendar features actresses across a wide age span, from Alicia Vikander (28) to Helen Mirren (71). Raw beauty and fine lines are displayed in all their glory; Kate Winslet reportedly even asked Lindbergh to focus on the back of her hands.
Another notable feature this year is the inclusion of Anastasia Ignatova, who is a lecturer at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. Lindbergh met her at a dinner in 2015 and was so struck by her beauty that he promised that he would feature her in the next Pirelli calendar if he ever got to shoot it again.
The calendar is only available to Pirelli’s top clients and VIPs.
