When Sølve Sundsbø found out he had been chosen to photograph the 52nd Pirelli Calendar his immediate feeling was “both excited and terrified”.
The Norway-born, London-based fashion photographer and filmmaker, celebrated for his fantastical imagery and radical approach, says he was “excited for all the possibilities of creating and terrified of being in the pantheon of all the great photographers who have done it before.
“To be chosen feels like you won a prize. Then you must earn that prize by making the Calendar.”
With former Calendar creators including Norman Parkinson, Herb Ritts, Helmut Newton and Annie Leibovitz, Sundsbø says he considers the Pirelli Calendar to be “a cultural icon” in the world of photography. “It's a celebration of creativity and artistry,” he says. “A place where there are few limitations and you can push your storytelling further.”
Manipulating reality
Garnering a reputation for versatility, Sundsbø has embraced cutting-edge technologies such as 3D scanning, as well as old-fashioned analogue techniques like hand-painted retouching in his work. “My job as a photographer is to manipulate reality in order to tell what I want,” he told Vogue Italia in 2013.
He has shot for multiple leading fashion and beauty brands and his extensive work for magazines includes covers and editorials for Harper's Bazaar Italia, i-D, Love, Numéro, Perfect, Re-Edition, The Face, V, Vogue italia and W. Among the high-profile men and women he has photographed are Tilda Swinton, Brad Pitt and George Clooney (GQ), Zendaya and Cate Blanchett.
Born in 1970, Sundsbø's interest in photography was sparked while he was working at a ski shop in Norway, where he came across VHS tapes of ski terrains. “Skiing is quite interesting for photography because you start with a blank canvas,” he told Vogue Italia in 2018. “You have a white background and then you fill it.” His native country continues to inspire him, and the influence of a clean, natural Norwegian aesthetic can often be seen in his work.
Breaking the rules
“I am not sure if I have a style,” he adds. “I have an approach based on curiosity. Curiosity invites exploration and sparks imagination. Through curiosity you can transform things into something extraordinary and engaging. I would love to think of it as opening a window or a door into a world that you haven't seen.”
Visionary approach
Sundsbø is known for pushing the language of fashion photography. His otherworldly pictures often look like they have been digitally altered even when they haven't. But he embraces new technologies, too.
In the late 1990s he was asked by Dazed & Confused for something “with a technological feel” and created a portrait of a model using a 3D scanning machine. The resulting image, with the top of the head missing and spikes coming out of the back, was later used as the cover for Coldplay's 2002 album A Rush of Blood to the Head.
In 2011, Sundsbø was commissioned to shoot the catalogue for the Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York celebrating the work of the late fashion designer. His concept was to photograph the clothes on live models but then make them look like mannequins, having coated their bodies with an alabaster acrylic paint and then digitally removed their heads or replaced them with dummy heads as part of an extensive retouching process.
In his film work, Sundsbø's 2010 film for the New York Times entitled 14 Actors Acting, featuring Natalie Portman, Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem among others, received an Emmy Award. In 2012, he collaborated with W magazine on a 50-foot tall, multi-screen video installation, The Ever Changing Face of Beauty, which was exhibited during New York Fashion Week.
Creating a world
As for the Calendar, Sundsbø has yet to unveil his concept but provides a hint of his thinking: “I would like to bring a visually unexpected world,” he says. “A world that is arresting and connects [with] the viewer on an emotional level.
“We have put together an amazing team and an incredible cast. I look forward to it all coming together, to create this world together.”
