The Italian multinational Pirelli has been one of the leading tire manufacturing companies in the world for 150 years, but since 1964 it has also been the brand that has made calendars an art and coveted object for collectors.
Media from around the world have gathered in London for the presentation of the 2024 almanac. This is the 50th edition, although the first was published 60 years ago, but for various reasons some years it did not come out as in 2021 because of the pandemic. The choice of the capital of the United Kingdom for the presentation party was not a coincidence, since it was the British subsidiary of Pirelli that had the idea in 1963 to create The Cal, as it is known, an exclusive calendar only for some customers and in this way differentiate itself from the corporate ones with which the competition gave away to workshops and transport companies that used their tires.
In that first edition the photographer was Robert Freeman, famous for photographing the group of the moment, the Beatles. The models were young unknowns who posed naked between tires, and the place chosen as the setting was Mallorca.
For the 50th calendar (about 70 copies will be distributed in Spain), Pirelli has trusted Prince Gyasi, the youngest photographer to have been commissioned to date with this assignment (28), and also the first African. Although unknown to most, he is one of the most promising visual artists, and some of his photographs are part of art collections. Color, which he works on his photos as if it were a painting, is his hallmark. And Africa, specifically Ghana, where he was born, is his main theme. That is why the calendar photos were taken in London and in his native country.
Gyasi has titled this year’s calendar Timeless, because it honors those people who have left their mark and who inspire new generations. And the chosen protagonists – all black – are: the actors Angela Bassett (Malcom the inauguration of Joe Biden), the model Naomi Campbell, the actress, singer and dancer Teyana Taylor, the former soccer player Marcel Desailly (champion of the World Cup in France 98), the singer-songwriter Tiwa Sawage, the musician and producer Jymes Samuel, the artist Amoako Boafo, and for the first time a king, ruler of the historic Asante empire of West Africa, Otumfo Osei Tutu.
Prince Gyasi himself also appears on the calendar along with the boy Abul Faid Yussif, who represents him in his childhood in Accra. All the protagonists represent a quality or concept: altruistic, visionary, detail-oriented, honesty, resilience, project, details… and precisely the timelessness, which gives the calendar its title, is represented by Campbell, who at 53 years old is his fifth participation in The Cal. The first was in 1987 when he was only 16 years old.
The world premiere of the calendar in London was attended by Angela Bassett, Amanda Gorman and Jeymes Samuel, as well as author Prince Gyasi. Marco Troncheti, executive vice president of Pirelli, highlighted the freedom given to artists for the calendar “it is important that they can express what they want.” Proof of this is that for the photocall they changed Pirelli’s corporate colors from yellow with red letters to pink, which for Gyasi means hope.
The sensitivity that the African photographer has with colors comes from synesthesia (intermingling sensitive sensations). So with certain smells and sounds he sees colors. Although curiously at the presentation he came dressed in black adorned with pearl necklaces. “I have built a bridge between painting and photography,” he said when referring to his style. “Many of the people who inspired me when I was a child still do so today. And, at the same time, new figures, some even younger than me, have become giants, new inspirations.” And he concluded that what unites all these personalities is his passion: “They never stop. “They never give up.”
The actress Angela Bassett, the altruist of the calendar, dressed in a yellow pantsuit, was the star of the presentation. She stated that she felt very honored when they proposed the calendar to her because it was a reference to the new generations, “I open the door for them.” For her, her reference has been her mother and her grandmother and she loved that Africa was once again present on the calendar for the second time (the first was Botswana in 2009).
Poet Amanda Gorman was very happy at the presentation. She was very nice, she tried to speak in Spanish with the Latin and Spanish media “Hello, nice to meet you, how are you?” And she revealed that she had recently been on vacation in Los Cabos, in Mexico. “It was a shock when they called me to ask me to pose for the calendar, because I am not a model. But I accepted because the power of the image is global and goes beyond languages ??or nationalisms.” She confessed that in addition to American writers, her poetic reference is Federico García Lorca.
The singer and musician Jeymes Samuel was also very happy during the presentation and asked the Brazilian journalists about a song that he sang in Portuguese, but did not know its meaning in English. He said it was surprising that Prince Gyasi saw him as the visionary and joked that after appearing in the calendar he was already on par with his former sister-in-law, German model Heidi Klum, who was married to her brother Seal.
With his participation in The Cal, Prince Gyasi follows in the footsteps of Peter Lindbergh, Steve Meisen, Richard Avedon, Annie Leibovitz, Steve McCurry, Helmunt Newton, Bryan Adams and Emma Summerton, photographers who, like tires, have left their mark on Pirelli.
Other historical information about the calendar is that in 1972, for the first time, a female photographer, Sarah Moon, was chosen. In 1988 Hugo Bregman was the first male model to pose. In 1994 the photos of beautiful women remained but all reference to tires was removed. In 2007, Hollywood actresses were included, and in 2016, successful women in different fields were included, while the calendar was more artistic, with a story behind it and more involved in social causes. Inés Sastre (1997), Penélope Cruz (2007 and 2017) and Rosalía (2020) have been the only Spaniards who have participated in the calendar. And apart from Mallorca, in the first edition, Seville (1990) and Almería (1992) have been the scene of the locations.
