Only 10,000 copies of the Pirelli Calendar are printed each year, and it’s not for sale. The calendar is only ever given away, with the mailing list held as a closely-guarded secret, and only about 200 will come to Australia.
Carsguide has managed to get hold of one of those, and together with Pirelli, is offering the chance to win it.
As usual, it features beautiful girls. Catwalk and magazine superstars Miranda Kerr, Catherine McNeil and Abbey Lee Kershaw – all from Down Under — are among the eleven models in this year’s calendar. The others are Eniko Mihalik from Hungary, Marloes Horst of the Netherlands, Lily Cole, Daisy Lowe, and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley from the UK, Georgina Stojiljkovic of Serbia and two Brazilians, Gracie Carvalho and Ana Beatriz Barros.
But this year’s calendar has moved away from the very arty photography of recent years. The images for the 37th edition of the calendar were shot on location in Brazil earlier this year by Terry Richardson, the outrageous American fashion photographer whose images are often sexually provocative and can border on the graphic. However the calendar in its finished version is probably more startling for its contrast to previous years than anything else.
Following on from the lush and exotic Botswana landscape and fauna in which Peter Beard set the models for last year’s calendar – and the opulent chinoiserie costumes and backdrops used by Patrick Demarchelier in 2008 – Richardson’s shots are starkly simple. He’s returned to the classic Pop Art era pin-up calendar style, with little in the way of backdrops, props, make-up – or costume, for that matter. “A great photographer,” says Richardson, “captures the moment – that’s why I shoot without extra equipment and without assistants.” But critics have said Richardson’s images are simply an unimaginative return to objectification of women that grate on the modern eye.
To enter Carsguide’s calendar competition, tell us in the comment box below if you think the 2010 Pirelli Calendar is great or grating – and why.
The best comment before midnight January 16 (ADST) will win the calendar, a couple of early examples of which have already sold on ebay for around $1000.
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