For over forty years the Pirelli calendar has annually commissioned one established fashion photographer to celebrate female beauty.

This particular calendar was created by Vogue famous fashion photographer Arthur Elgort and it explored themes inspired by Leni Riefenstahl’s “Olympia“, the 1936 Berlin Olympics official film.

Once printed the calendar is distributed around a small range of exclusive individuals, other photographers who have been included in the project include the likes of the prolific Helmut Newton, Richard Avedon, Sarah Moon, Herb Ritts, Bruce Weber, Mert and Marcus, Mario Sorrenti and more.

Presenting women as powerfully stoic while performing athletics semi nude Elgort created something intoxicatingly beautiful about seeing these women in densely airless spaces compete for fantasy competitions. Elgort is known for his ability to capture movement in photography and his creation of lightning has always been highly admired. The timelessness to these photographs where their context could be placed in anything from the Roman Empire, to the statuesque beauty and slightly fascistic look of the 1930s women to to the glossed over glamour of the late 80s is really quite satisfying.

To see more about previous Pirelli calendars have a look here