The controversial Pirelli Calendar replaces titillation with fantasy

The 2018 Pirelli Calendar marks a radical break from previous editions, in which the sensuality of its images was the dominant feature.

The Pirelli Calendar has never left anyone indifferent. It is an annual publication that dates back to 1964. This advertising calendar has always been characterised by the sensuality of its images, in which attractive women in suggestive poses commonly appear. Despite this tradition, the people at Pirelli have decided to take a radical turn with their calendar for its 45th edition. This year the sensual images have been replaced by something much more fanciful.

The images of the new 2018 Pirelli Calendar were taken by Tim Walker, a British photographer who has drawn on one of the most classic stories in Anglo-Saxon literature for the occasion: “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”.

The 2018 Pirelli Calendar consists of 18 photographs taken in 20 different settings of a reinterpreted “Wonderland”.

“Alice’s story has been told countless times, and I wanted to get to the genesis of Lewis Carroll’s imagination so that I could retell it from the beginning. I wanted to find a different and original point of view,” explains Walker.

To give his own interpretation of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, Walker has used a group of people made up of 18 Black characters, among whom are musicians, actors, models and political activists. Below we mention the cast of people who appear in the 2018 Pirelli Calendar:

• Sudanese-Australian model Adut Akech
• Anglo-Ghanaian model and feminist activist Adwoa Aboah
• German-Senegalese model Alpha Dia
• Beninese-American actor and model Djimon Hounsou
• South Sudanese-Australian model Duckie Thot
• Gambian women’s rights activist Jaha Dukureh
• British model King Owusu
• American rapper and singer Lil Yachty
• Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong’O
• British top model and actress Naomi Campbell
• Actor, television personality and singer-songwriter RuPaul
• American actress Sasha Lane
• Rapper, singer, composer, actor, record producer and entrepreneur Sean “Diddy” Combs
• American model Slick Woods
• South African model and lawyer Thando Hopa
• Actress, comedian, author and television presenter Whoopi Goldberg
• British model Wilson Oryema
• British stylist, designer and singer Zoe Bedeaux.

The above characters make up an entirely Black cast, something that had already happened in the 1987 Calendar, when British photographer Terence Donovan portrayed five very beautiful Black women, among them Naomi Campbell at sixteen and model, writer and activist Waris Dirie.

Naomi Campbell in the 1987 Pirelli Calendar