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Bringing sexy back Pirelli photographer vows to take classic calendar pinups into post #MeToo era

The Guardian

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August 14, 2024

The photographer behind the next Pirelli calendar has vowed to make it sexy again after a period when #MeToo "forced everyone to take a pause" and the company began capturing fully clothed models.

- Chloe Mac Donnell

Bringing sexy back Pirelli photographer vows to take classic calendar pinups into post #MeToo era

John Boyega is among the celebrities posing for the 2025 edition, named Refresh and Reveal, with the British-born actor flexing his muscles in the sea off Florida as an assistant throws water over him from a plastic bucket.

It also features Padma Lakshmi in a wispy thin tulle dress and the performance artist Martine Gutierrez naked aside from a piece of driftwood covering her pelvis.

Ethan James Green, the photographer behind this year's calendar, says the time is right for celebrities to undress - as well as to examine how #MeToo and social media has redefined sexiness.

"I think you know #MeToo really forced everyone to pause, which is really good," he says. And I think a lot of what sexy has become is like what we started seeing on people's social media, usually through selfies. So people have full control of what they're putting out there, in showing how skin is captured, and not doing anything they're not comfortable with. And then with me, my work has always been about collaboration with the subject."

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