Pirelli Calendar - Always Timely...

If you've never heard of the Pirelli calendar, you need come out of that cave you've been living in all these years.

Giselle Bundchen, Naples, Italy, 2001, shot by Mario Testino

A trade calendar at heart, but this isn't a Snap-On Tools or O'Reilly Auto Parts throw down. For love nor money can this calendar be bought. The Pirelli Company bestows this corporate gift upon those most deserving - important customers and vendors along with celebrity VIPs.

Shot by Herb Ritts, Los Angeles, CA, 1999

First published in 1964, the limited-edition Pirelli calendar has risen in the pantheon of girly calendars to become highly exclusive and sought after item by collectors. 


It is a contemporary cultural statement of sorts. A barometer of current tastes in beauty, fashion, and  mores. It is at its best when the look is classic rather than on trend. 


Such is its prestige that many a model's career has been made after gracing the calendar's pages. Being selected to pose for Pirelli is the gold standard for a model, same stratosphere as Sports Illustrated and Victoria's Secret.

Cindy Crawford 1994 Paradise Island, Bahamas, shot by Herb Ritts

As far as photographers go, only the most distinguished are engaged to shoot it. I had the privilege about a year ago to introduce photographer Joyce Tennyson at a New Orleans Photo Alliance event held at NOCCA. She didn't have on her bio that she shot the 1989 Pirelli Calendar though as soon as you see the images, you know they are distinctively hers.

Photographer, Joyce Tennyson, 1989

She is known for her soft yet empowering images of woman. I have to be honest in that as much as I generally like her work, I didn't really care for her photos on the calendar. 

They are the antithesis of hard-edged glamorous nearly misogynistic work of Helmut Newton or the highly stylized work of Richard Avdeon. For me, they just don't work here. The models were representing the twelve signs of the zodiac with a Roman take. The shoot take place at the Polaroid Studios in New York City. 

Eva Herzigova, El Mirage, California 1996, shot by Peter Lindberg

Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld's work on the 2011 calendar was not one of my favorite's either. The Roman mythology essence in black and white just seems a bit trite and unimaginative. 


He discussed his vision for the shoot saying, "The Pirelli Calendar is a myth, a tribute to the woman, sometimes anticipates the mores of society with its aesthetic codes and archetypes, and marks the future.” Yawn. 

2011, shot by Karl Lagerfeld, studio in Paris, France

One of my favorite calendars is the 1999 shot by Herb Ritts in Hollywood, California. Very old school pin-up glamour and the French model Laetitia Casta was just so gorgeous. She was featured as the solo model in the 2000 version shot by Annie Leibowitz.

The versions full of Hollywood starlets lacks authenticity and are not as classic and timeless. Models are models, actresses are actresses. 


Another favorite is the ever luscious Monica Belluci who posed for Richard Avedon's calendar shot in 1997. 

On location shoots are often exotic and range from the Seychelles to Morocco to Big Sur to the Cote d'Azur. 

In my blog a few days back, I wrote about artist and photographer Peter Beard. In 2009, he shot models Lara Stone, Malgosia Bela, Isabeli Fontana and others at the Okavango Delta in Botswana, Africa. 


He is also credited with discovering Iman (Mrs. David Bowie) as a young university student. She was the sole model of 1985's calendar shot by Norman Parkinson. 


http://suzannessciamachy.blogspot.com/2011/11/peter-beard-visual-kunstkammers.html

Saskia de Brauw, shot by Alessandro Scotti

Coming up in 2012 are Lara Stone, Kate Moss, Mila Jovovich, Rinko Kikuchi, Saskia de Brauw and Isabeli Fontana shot in Corsica . On December 6th, Vanity Fair magazine will preview some of the images.