The Pirelli calendar will celebrate its 60th birthday next year – with its 50th edition. It was designed by the African photographer Prince Gyasi. In contrast to some simple workshop calendars, the coveted photographic work of art will no longer have anything to do with car tires in 2024.
It is a rush of colors and shapes, a world staged down to the last detail around dignitaries, artists, athletes and models like style icon Naomi Campbell. Prince Gyasi, a photographer from Accra/Ghana born in 1995, is doing something colorful in the 50th edition of the world-famous Pirelli calendar. No wonder, because the shooting star of the photography scene thinks and speaks in colors. And that is to be understood literally. The works are influenced by his very personal experiences with the neurological phenomenon of synesthesia; he associates colors with words and stages his photos like opulent paintings. Beauty, colors, light – the art-loving Pirelli Executive Vice Chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera calls the result of the photo sessions in London and Ghana an “optimistic approach to the future”. “This is tradition without the burden of the past.” And at the same time it is a look at a still underestimated continent full of potential.Naomi Campbell has the pointer in her handPrince Gyasi has chosen the title “Timeless” for “The Cal 2024”. His credo: “We are not born timeless, but we become so.” Fittingly, Naomi Campbell has a hand removed from a huge clock in her hand on one of the calendar pages entitled “Time Stopper” – the timelessness cannot be represented more clearly. However, the calendar title should not be understood as a call to be content with the here and now. Rather, Prince Gyasi wants to encourage young people in particular to learn, create and thereby inspire others: “I hope they understand that they can do anything they want to do if they just try hard enough and are determined.” It is precisely this determination that he identified in his calendar protagonists: “They have found their strengths and changed their fate,” he says about such contrasting 2024 models as actor Idris Elba, Ashanti monarch Otumfuo Osei Tutu II or the young poet Amanda Gorman. With their appearance in the Pirelli calendar, they all stand in an impressive time series with countless stars and starlets in this calendar, which is not for sale but is sent out every year to a few thousand selected friends of the brand. Away from the men’s magazine calendar Big names in front of and behind the camera are almost a trademark of the Bild-Werk, which was initially intended as a promotional gift for major customers in 1964. At first, partly in keeping with the male-dominated “audience taste”, there was often plenty of bare skin, and partly also with cautious associations with Pirelli products – for example in the form of prints of the latest sports tires in the sand next to the models. Over the years, things developed “The Cal” continued to develop and quickly achieved cult status. Since then, the most renowned photographers of their era have not only photographed the most famous models, actresses and artists for him. They also create contemporary culture, interpret the prevailing zeitgeist, and set new trends. And without any influence from the client. “The photographers are “free to express themselves,” says Pirelli CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera, emphasizing an important principle of his company. He explains the decades-long commitment to calendars as follows: In order to grow as a company over decades, art, industry and politics have to grow with society. By the way, the annual chronicle of the Pirelli calendar is not entirely without blank spaces. From 1975 to 1983, savings were made at Pirelli, but the global recession and a subsequent phase of tight budgets temporarily ended the project. In 2021, the corona virus slowed down production. That’s why the 2024 calendar is “only” the 50th in 60 years. It looks like Prince Gyasi didn’t just hit the mark with his title “Timeless” for his own pictures. But also for “The Cal” as a whole – in the past and in the future. (SPX)
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