Pirelli Calendar

The Pirelli Calendar dates back to 1964 when the Marketing Department of Pirelli Ltd in the UK decided to issue a Calendar for their top U.K. customers as a gift for the closing year. In fact the Pirelli Calendar project had been born one year earlier, in 1963 with Terence Donovan, but had not met the approval of Pirelli's managers. However for 1964 the pictures were so beautiful that the new calendar was released for distribution and the success on the media was immediate.

Over a period of more than 30 years the Pirelli Calendars have shaken the media world with their audacity, innovation and spectacular imagery. The Calendar was very much a product of the cultural revolution which inspired a new sensuality, a new appreciation of the female form and, above all, an urgent need to break taboos. In the sixties a tidal wave of creative energy swept through rock music, fashion, films and photography, and the stuffiness and austerity of post-war London quickly surrendered to a new vitality which turned the city into the style capital of the world. At the same time a tyre manufacturer with a foreign name shot to fame outside Italy with an annual PR extravaganza which became coveted by students, cabinet ministers, royalties and superstars alike. An idea of creative genius became a printed icon for each year, spawned many inferior imitations and stretched the parameters of sensual fantasy and fabulous photography. The Pirelli Calendar has redefined the rules of glamorous photography; by tradition calendars were hung on garage walls - now they hang in museums, and Pirelli have gone on redefining those rules year after year. Its twelve leaves were - and still are - awaited with enthusiastic anticipation.

The aim of the Calendar is to produce through the photographer's creativity a theme and a set of pictures of high artistic level: its exclusivity was planned and carefully maintained by Pirelli.

Source

The Photographers and Locations
1964 Robert Freeman in Majorca
1965 Brian Duffy in the South of France
1966 Peter Knapp in Al Hoceima, Morocco
1967 Not Published
1968 Harry Peccinotti in Tunisia
1969 Harry Peccinotti in Big Sur, California
1970 Francis Giacobetti in Paradise Island, The Bahamas
1971 Francis Giacobetti in Jamaica
1972 Sarah Moon in Villa Les Tilleuls, Paris
1973 Brian Duffy in London
1974 Hans Feurer in The Seychelles
1975-83 Not published
1984 Uwe Ommer in The Bahamas
1985 Norman Parkinson in Edinburgh, Scotland
1986 Bert Stern in the Cotswolds, England
1987 Terence Donovan in Bath, England
1988 Barry Lategan in London
1989 Joyce Tennyson in the Polaroid Studios, New York
1990 Arthur Elgort in Seville, Spain
1991 Clive Arrowsmith in France
1992 Clive Arrowsmith in Almeria, Spain
1993 John Claridge in the Seychelles
1994 Herb Ritts at Paradise Island, the Bahamas
1995 Richard Avedon in New York
1996 Peter Lindbergh in El Mirage, California
1997 Richard Avedon in New York
1998 Bruce Weber in Miami
1999 Herb Ritts in Los Angeles
2000 Annie Leibovitz in Rhinebeck, N. New York City
2001 Mario Testino in Naples, Italy
2002 Peter Lindbergh in Hollywood, Los Angeles
2003 Bruce Weber in Campania, Italy
2004 Nick Knight in London
2005 Patrick Demarchelier in Rio de Janeiro

See Complete Pirelli Calendar Collection from 1964 to 2002