Wearing little more than their underwear, comedian Amy Schumer and tennis superstar Serena Williams have bared all for a “completely different” Pirelli Calendar.
Posing semi-nude, they posed for iconic photographer Annie Leibovitz who curated the 2016 edition.
However, it wasn’t supposed to be a nude shoot!
“It’s as if she didn’t get the memo saying that she could keep her clothes on,” Leibovitz said in a statement about Schumer.
“I was worried for her, I asked, ‘are you self-conscious?’ And she said, ‘are you kidding? I love my body!'”
Instead of snapping supermodels in skimpy lingerie, Leibovitz’s vision was to shoot 13 “women of outstanding professional, social, cultural, sporting and artistic accomplishment” in her New York City studio.
Serena Williams
Leibovitz, who last shot the calendar in 2000, said she was happy to break the mould.
“The 2000 calendar was an exercise in photographing nudes. It was a simple concept,” she said.
“For 2016, we did something completely different, but it is still simple. It is a classic set of black-and-white portraits made in the studio. When Pirelli approached me, they said they wanted to make a departure from the past.”
“They suggested the idea of photographing distinguished women. After we agreed on that, the goal was to be very straightforward. I wanted the pictures to show the women exactly as they are, with no pretence.”
Yet Schumer wasn’t shy about her untouched portrait which has since gone viral on social media.
“Beautiful, gross, strong, thin, fat, pretty, ugly, sexy, disgusting, flawless, woman. Thank you @annieleibovitz,” the 34-year-old tweeted.
In a promo video for the shoot, she said: “I felt I looked more beautiful than I’ve ever felt in my life, and I felt like it looked like me.”
The calendar also features Yoko Ono, Fran Lebowitz, Tavi Gevinson, Ava DuVernay, Natalia Vodianova, Agnes Gund, Kathleen Kennedy, Mellody Hobson, Shirin Neshat and Yao Chen.
