Beyond beauty, Stop at top model with perfect measurements and features. The ‘mantra’ of calendars bans prejudices and ‘defects’ and says yes to models of all sizes. The change put into effect by the new one is an epochal change Pirelli Calendar 2023, who has decided to immortalize ‘muses’, that is, contemporary women shot in twelve shots that inhabit a dreamlike and real world. Women of all kinds, who represent the whole female world, even that which is far from the world of the catwalks: workers, activists, creatives, dreamers, girls who are reborn after great pain. The Australian photographer Emma Summertonfor his work that took place between New York at Pier59 studios, and London at Big Sky Studios, he developed the theme Love Letters to the Museand awaiting the official presentation which will take place in the autumn, there has already been an anticipation of the backstage shots.
Who are his Muses? Women who live off talent, who work, who know how to intercept and write the future, who day after day shape everyday life with art and their audacity. Writers, painters, singers, athletes and more, so different from each other but all united by a single common denominator: the powerful female energy that they release, launching a strong message to the world. Among the Muses immortalized in the shots – including He Cong, Bella Hadid, Cara Delevingne, Kate Moss’s daughter Lila Moss, Kaya Wilkins and the charming Ashley Graham – no wonder Summerton’s mom is there too.
Top model and more, like the athlete Lauren water, whose legs were amputated due to toxic shock syndrome, caused by the staphylococcus aureus bacteria in tampons. In the Pirelli Calendar the former model becomes one gladiatrix and artificial limbs his ‘golden’ armor. For each click, the Australian photographer wondered who the woman she had in front of her really was, how she lives, how she loves, how she imagines the future and what kind of gaze she has on the world. And here the calendar has become an opportunity to “open the mind and make the viewer dream”, taking him into a real and dreamlike world, halfway between reality and fantasy, populated by women as strong as sovereigns, but also as small as elves. as powerful as Cleopatra or as elusive as you do.
And here it is, in the Love letter to the Muses Adut Akech becomes the dream catcher, Lila Moss the seer guesses. Adwoa Aboah embodies a queen and He Cong embodies wisdom. And then, being Muse, they could not fail to represent the Arts: Kaya Wilkins the music, Sasha Pivovarova the painting, Emily Ratajkowski the writing, while Precious Lee is the narrator. And like any self-respecting fairy tale, there could not even be the creature of the woods, represented by Bella Hadid. And then a look at the contemporary with the performer Cara Delevingnetech Karlie Kloss, photographer Guinevere van Seenus and enchanting curvy model, activist and supporter of the body positivty movement Ashley Graham.
Emma Summerton, the woman who photographs women, had very clear ideas right away: “For each of them I recreated a set and a world. I chose them because they are icons, a source of inspiration, in my life as in that of many other people. At first I doubted the overused term ‘Muse’, but its original meaning of art and creativity matched perfectly with the soul of my concept, and so I chose it ”. “When you photograph someone it’s not just a matter of image and appearance – she explains. I am looking for a complete dimension. Therefore, the choice of the models did not depend only on their aesthetics and beauty, but also on the strength, their talent, the feminine and creative energy that characterize them. All of them, in addition to being beautiful, have a story to tell, a world to discover ”. And that’s what makes them Muse.