The 44th Pirelli Calendar has been completed, and features 14 actresses from around the world. The photos were taken between May and June of this year in five different locations: Berlin, Los Angeles, New York, London and the beach at Le Touquet in France.
The result is a calendar consisting of 40 images -- with portraits and environments -- made not just in the studio, but also in a number of city corners and open-air sets.
German photographer Peter Lindbergh was asked to produce the calendar for the third time. He also shot the 1996 and 2002 editions. He titled the 2017 calendar "Emotional" in order to emphasize how the idea behind his photos was "to create a calendar not around perfect bodies, but on sensitivity and emotion, stripping down to the very soul of the sitters, who thus become more nude than naked."
The models for the latest calendar were Jessica Chastain, Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara, Helen Mirren, Julianne Moore, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlotte Rampling, Lea Seydoux, Uma Thurman, Alicia Vikander, Kate Winslet, Robin Wright, and Zhang Ziyi. Lindbergh also chose to photograph a non-actress, Anastasia Ignatova, professor of Political Theory at Moscow State University of International Relations (MGIMO).
"My aim was to portray women in a different way,” says Lindbergh, "and I did it by calling in actresses who’ve played an important role in my life, getting as close as possible to them to take my photos. As an artist, I feel I’m responsible for freeing women from the idea of eternal youth and perfection. The ideal of perfect beauty promoted by society is something that simply can’t be attained."
Lindbergh's initial idea was to also introduce aspects of technology and industry into the Calendar, so while he was working on it, he also took many photographs at the Pirelli industrial center in Settimo Torinese, which is Pirelli's most technologically advanced factory. This experience led to a series of photographs of the world of automation and innovation that turned out to be so evocative and powerful -- as the photographer himself said in an interview published in "Pirelli World" magazine -- they will be used for an independent project.
For exclusive information about the 2017 Pirelli Calendar, visit www.pirellicalendar.com.
