Pirelli Calendar 2019: the inside story
In May 2017 Albert Watson’s New York studio got the call from Pirelli to ask if he would consider shooting the 2019 Pirelli Calendar, aka ‘The Cal’. Ironically, it came many years after Watson was first approached to shoot the calendar – that was a project he declined as he didn’t think the ballet dancer theme of that year suited him at that time. He laughs and says, ‘But I guess it eventually came round to me again!’
Watson prepared for the 2019 project in his usual meticulous fashion. He explains, ‘I had a storyboard of references of my own pieces and sometimes random things, like an old still of a man teaching a woman to tango. I had 24 fairly extensive boards and each board had about 10 images on it, so about 240 or 250 images were prepped as inspiration.’
Like many of the recent Pirelli Calendar photographers, Watson took the decision to move away
