The Pirelli calendar, the tire company’s annual showcase of female beauty, continues to redefine itself.
While the 2016 calendar celebrated accomplishments beyond the world of fashion — choosing to feature the likes of Serena Williams and Amy Schumer instead of models — next year’s subjects are award-winning actresses.
Photographer Peter Lindbergh shot Nicole Kidman, Lupita Nyong’o, Uma Thurman, Jessica Chastain, Lea Seydoux, Robin Wright, Zhang Ziyi, Helen Mirren, Rooney Mara, Penelope Cruz, Julianne Moore, Charlotte Rampling, Alicia Vikander, Kate Winslet and Moscow State University professor Anastacia Ignatova.
That’s seven Oscar winners, if you’re counting.
“The Pirelli Calendar is and has always been an incredible media instrument,” Lindbergh told Vogue.
“This Pirelli Calendar is a very important one because you don’t have to do nudity anymore, you’re not under pressure to do anything with your body, which is great,” he said.”Beauty today is really twisted for commercial reasons, so people think beautiful is what you see in advertising and in magazines — all these retouched women.”
Lindbergh, a German portrait photographer and filmmaker, has shot the calendar three times before and talked about how the process has changed.
“The one big difference between actresses and models is that models are fixed to the camera and actresses never look at a camera if you don’t force them,” he said. “They learn their whole life to be there and forget there’s a camera. That’s a fundamental difference.”
The 44th edition of the calendar was shot in Berlin, London, Los Angeles, New York and Le Touquet, France.
