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Renowned photographer Peter Beard shot the images for the new 2009 Pirelli Calendar, a 40-year tradition from the tire maker. The latest edition was had its world premiere Nov. 20 at The Station in Berlin, a historic train depot that connected the capital with Dresden, Vienna and Prague in the late 19th century.
The setting is the landscape of Botswana, where last May Beard spent ten days shooting seven internationally recognized models. Beard lived in Kenya for 30 years; his work in known the world over.
After last year’s China edition, where Patrick Demarchelier “juxtaposed the atmospheres of ancient tea houses with the modernity of China’s metropolises,” the Pirelli Calendar now moves to “one of the few places in Africa that remain wild and unspoiled, free of the ravages of war and with the highest concentration of wildlife.”
Beard has chosen “an authentic and ancestral land that is born of the interpenetration of two different worlds; the aquatic oasis of the Okavango River delta and the arid expanse of the Kalahari Desert: A place that has been spared both the exploitation of the land and the impoverishment of its resources, the ideal setting for the photographer’s representation of nature as a metaphysical entity, always in motion, source of infinite creativity, within whose rhythms and laws everything must begin and end,” according to the company.
The result is a calendar/diary that Beard describes as “a living sculpture.” The 56 plates of are a collage of images, quotations, observations by the artist on the environment, climate change and global warming, overpopulation and the depletion of natural resources. “My real concern,” he says, “is the destruction of nature on a global scale. We’ve totally lost track of what evolution is based on, and how important diversity is in nature. This concept is the very foundation of survival.”
The seven models are Daria Werbowy of Canada, Emanuela de Paula and Isabeli Fontana (who debuted in Demarchelier’s 2005 Calendar) from Brazil, Lara Stone and Rianne Ten Haken from Holland, Malgosia Bela of Poland and Italy’s Mariacarla Boscono (who first appeared in the 2003 edition by Bruce Weber and again in Nick Knight’s 2004 Calendar).
Throughout the shooting and production of the calendar, a number of measures were taken to minimize its environmental impact. In keeping with Beard’s message, the Pirelli Calendar and the gala presentation of the 2009 edition is targeted to have “Zero Impact.” Pirelli, in cooperation with a LifeGate initiative, will contribute to the creation and protection of a forested area in Costa Rica capable of absorbing the same quantity of CO2 emissions generated by the production and printing of the calendar and by the presentation event. Also, the calendar will be printed on natural, lead-free paper.
For more information, visit www.us.pirelli.com.
