It seems the annual Pirelli calendar continuing on its mission to defy expectation with actresses Nicole Kidman, Helen Mirren and Uma Thurman going un-retouched for the 2017 instalment.
Following on from 2016, which saw Annie Leibovitz break away from the supermodel mould, this year photographer Peter Lindbergh said the calendar was a “statement” against our Photoshop-obsessed culture and a “cry against the terror of perfection”.
“You know these women retouched,” he told the HuffPost UK. “It’s more powerful when you see these women how they normally are.”
This year’s calendar, titled “Emotional,” features actresses Jessica Chastain, Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara, Helen Mirren, Julianne Moore, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlotte Rampling, Lea Seydoux, Uma Thurman, Alicia Vikander, Kate Winslet, Robin Wright and Zhang Ziyi.
It also features non-actress Anastasia Ignatova, a professor of political theory at the Moscow State University of International Relations.
“My aim was to portray women in a different way, and I did it by calling in actresses who’ve played an important role in my life, getting as close as possible to them to take my photos,” Lindbergh said in a release. “As an artist, I feel I’m responsible for freeing women from the idea of eternal youth and perfection. The ideal of perfect beauty promoted by society is something that simply can’t be attained.”
Rather than seeing his subject strip off into skimpy outfits like years past, Lindbergh says seeing these high profile women without makeup and no heavy editing is just as revealing.
“It’s another kind of naked,” he said. “More important than body parts.”
At a press conference in Paris unveiling the 2017 Pirelli calendar, Nicole Kidman said that she embraced the opportunity to be seen in such a raw state.
“I know in my own personal life my husband totally prefers me with no makeup on,” said Nicole said of hubby Keith Urban. “[Keith] always says that, and I’m sure there’s an enormous amount of men in this room that go, ‘I love women when they [have got] no makeup and most natural.’”
Nicole explained that in this day and age, women can choose how they want to look – either natural or “put on a whole character and look completely different.” The Oscar-winner went on to quantify by saying: “But that’s the choice, and we’re allowed to have those choices, and I think that’s a very important message, particularly to the next generation.”
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