The Pirelli Calendar has held iconic status in the fashion industry for decades. From humble beginnings as a corporate freebie back in 1964, the calendar now attracts the world’s very best photographers and most famous subjects.

The 2017 calendar “conveys personality, sensitivity and the guts to be yourself”, Peter Lindbergh explained at the international press launch of the new calendar in Paris. The German photographer has called the creation “Emotional”, emphasizing how his aim was “not shoot a calendar about perfect bodies but to capture sensitivity and emotion, laying bare the souls of the women in the images, rendering them more naked that a nude.”

The 44th edition of Pirelli’s legendary creation is further testament to Lindbergh’s love of the big screen, which he celebrates with his star-studded 2017 Pirelli Calendar cast: Jessica Chastain, Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara, Helen Mirren, Julianne Moore, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlotte Rampling, Lea Seydoux, Uma Thurman, Alicia Vikander, Kate Winslet, Robin Wright, and Zhang Ziyi. The line-up also features Anastasia Ignatova, a Political Theory professor at Moscow State University, as special guest.For the 2017 edition, the shots were taken between May and June at Berlin, Los Angeles, New York, London and the French beach of Le Touquet.