by Giovanna Fusco
The protagonists of the new Pirelli Calendar 2019 are four wonderful women: Laetitia Casta, TV series star actress Netflix Ozark Julia Garner, top model Gigi Hadid and etoile Misty Copeland.What is told in the famous calendar, now in its forty-sixth edition, is the story of these women, determined to achieve their goals and their dreams, through victories and defeats. Forty shots in color and black and white in 16: 9 format inspired by the great passion of the Scottish photographer Sir Albert Watson.
The latter is one of the twenty most famous photographers of all time, one of the most important names in international photography since the seventies.“When I approached this project – explains Watson – I wanted to do it differently from other photographers and I asked myself what was the best way.
In the end I looked for images that were qualitatively valuable, had depth and told stories. I wanted to do something more than simply portray people, I wanted to make everything look more like movie ‘stills’. I would like people, looking at the Calendar, to understand that my goal was to do pure photography, to explore the women I was photographing and to create a situation that proposed a positive vision of women today “.
The same photographer, telling the path that led him to realize the Calendar, talks about his dreams, the commitment and the sacrifices that these involve: “To realize a dream you have to work hard. I have always followed a gradual path reaching a goal at a time without wanting to climb immediately up the ladder. Even though I sometimes think that this ladder can stretch to infinity and the highest step away, I think it’s always worthwhile to set goals and dreams that are more ambitious each time. ” “Each of the four women – he continues – has an individuality in its own right, its specific purpose in life and its own way of doing things. And all are focused on their future. So, the underlying theme is that of ‘dreams’, but the idea behind the whole project is the story through four ‘little films’. “
In this way Gigi Hadid plays a woman who has recently separated from her partner. , lives in solitude in a glass tower and has in Alexander Wang the only friend and confidant; Julia Garner, an expert actress, becomes a young photographer, a lover of nature and solitude.
Misty Copeland, flanked in the Calendar by the partner Calvin Royal III, looks to the future dreaming of establishing herself in the dance world; finally Laetitia Casta is a painter who lives in a studio-studio with her partner, played by Sergei Polunin.
The Pirelli 2019 Calendar thus becomes a real emotional journey through the dreams and lives of these women, without neglecting their weaknesses and weaknesses, but focusing on their ability to achieve their goals in spite of everything.
