If Annie Leibovitz’s 2016 Pirelli Calendar, featuring famous women from all strokes of life clothed—well, save Amy Schumer—was a departure from the high-gloss, semi-nude imagery that one might have expected from the tire company’s iconic calendar, the 2017 edition seeks to top even that. Shot by famed lensman Peter Lindbergh, the new edition stars 14 famous actresses without a lick of retouching. In the calendar’s many pages are Kate Winslet’s hands, Nicole Kidman’s sultry stare, Penélope Cruz in her knickers, Ziyi Zhang several months after giving birth to her daughter, and Helen Mirren, looking utterly Mirren-esque. (Though he won’t admit it, Lindbergh just might like Mirren’s picture best. “I wanted to put Helen Mirren on my birthday in November,” he said.) The calendar also stars Alicia Vikander, Robin Wright, Léa Seydoux, Rooney Mara, Julianne Moore, Uma Thurman, Charlotte Rampling, and Russian professor Anastasia Ignatova.
In today’s world, the black-and-white imagery is particularly poignant. “They don’t fit in the climate at all, I think,” said Lindbergh at a press conference in Paris. “That’s the purpose of this: to say I don’t accept that image of beauty, which has been created by commercial interests, and to remind what beauty really is.”
He continued, “In the time when women are represented in the media, in every way else, as ambassadors of perfection and youth, I thought it was important to remind everyone that there is a different beauty, more real and truthful, and not manipulated by commercial or any other interests. That is important, no? Beauty that speaks about individuality, courage to be yourself, and your very own sensibility. That’s my definition of a woman today. That is the goal of the calendar, to show that woman and not the stretched and manipulated [woman often shown in the media].”
The calendar is only distributed to clients of Pirelli, but you can get a first look at Lindbergh’s photographs here. To those familiar with the photographer’s work, whether it be his famed portrait of the supers in white shirts or the first Vogue cover commissioned by Anna Wintour in 1988 featuring model Michaela Bercu in jeans and Christian Lacroixcouture, the gorgeous pictures will strike a chord.