Peter Lindbergh's no-frills Pirelli calendar portraits 'a cry against the terror of perfection'

Calendar's move toward less sexualized images marks 'a cultural shift,' says Helen Mirren

Taking another bold step away from risqué shots and nude models, Pirelli unveiled the 2017 edition of its famed calendar — featuring Peter Lindbergh's take on natural beauty and starring some of the globe's best known actresses.

The Italian tire manufacturer's famed calendar, one of the world's most popular annual photographic publications, was unveiled by the German photographer in Paris on Tuesday. 

'It's like an interview, but with a camera,' actress Uma Thurman said of her session with Peter Lindbergh for the 2017 edition of the Pirelli calendar. (Peter Lindbergh/Pirelli)

He was accompanied by actresses Helen Mirren, Uma Thurman and Nicole Kidman, just three of the stars he captured with his lens.

Following in the vein of the 2016 edition, photographed by Annie Leibovitz, this year's calendar spotlights the famed subjects in images that depict a more naturalistic concept of beauty — a far cry from some campaigns of the past, which often featured scantily clad or nude models captured in exotic locales.

The idea was to gather "the best actresses in the world, who have something to say," Lindbergh, known for his stark black-and-white portraiture, says in a behind-the-scenes video.

"I approached them and said, 'I want to do something that is a cry against the terror of perfection and youth."

The calendar's move toward less sexualized images of women marks "undoubtedly a cultural shift, a real opening up and a big change," Mirren said.

The choice to proudly look your age projects a good example of what natural beauty should be, said Kidman, who added, "the courage to be yourself is the epitome of confidence and power."

Linderbergh chose to shoot the actresses with little makeup and titled this year's edition Emotional 'to create a calendar not around perfect bodies, but on sensitivity and emotion, stripping down to the very soul of the sitters, who thus become more nude than naked.' (Peter Lindbergh/Pirelli)

More than a dozen top actresses — across a variety of age ranges and hailing from around the globe — appear:

• Veteran performers Mirren and Charlotte Rampling.
• Mid-career stars Kidman, Thurman, Julianne Moore, Robin Wright, Penelope Cruz, Kate Winslet, Jessica Chastain and Zhang Ziyi. 
• Up-and-comers Lupita Nyong'o, Rooney Mara, Léa Seydoux and Alicia Vikander. 

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