Peter Lindbergh. Shadows on the Wall by Peter Lindbergh

Now, together with Taschen, he is releasing a book of work made up of images he took for the 2017 Pirelli Calendar as the first photographer to grace its hallowed pages more than twice in its prestigious fifty year history. Handpicked from a selection of 37,000 photographs taken during the 2017 shoot, Shadows on the Wall – a homage to Plato’s allegory of uncovering reality – is 148-pages of truly engaging portraiture. With that approach, his work has come to define, and pioneer, a new kind of realism. Perfection, and fashion’s ideology of youth, are all fallacy to Lindbergh – his work is instead based upon the idea that people are more interesting and possess greater depth than the glossy veneer we are so accustomed to seeing. These intimate images represent a different kind of beauty, far away from society's obsession with youth and perfection one which is concerned with individuality, the courage to be yourself, and your very own sensibility.Peter Lindbergh has always been interested in what is real – his pictures have an honesty to them, far from the airbrushed ideals of perfection still favoured by so many of his contemporaries.

Handpicked from 37,000 unreleased photos from his groundbreaking 2017 Pirelli calendar shoot, Lindbergh offers an intimate insight into a pool of extraordinary talent: Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, Alicia Vikander, Charlotte Rampling, Dame Helen Mirren, Jessica Chastain, Kate Winslet, Lea Seydoux, Lupita Nyong'o, Penelope Cruz, Robin Wright, Rooney Mara, Uma Thurman, and Zhang Ziyi. The industry quickly became enamored with his almost anti-fashion photography, capturing the zeitgeist and the spirit of his subjects rather than pursuing today's search for perfection, which he considers inhuman. With such credits as shooting the first American Vogue cover under Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, bringing together for the first time a group of young women who would become the '90s supermodels, and numerous solo exhibitions at world-renowned institutions including the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, and the Gagosian in London, Peter Lindbergh is a master of his craft who has made his mark in the halls of photography history.

I'm interested in what is powerful and real.' -Peter Lindbergh 'What is merely beautiful has always bored me.

Peter Lindbergh. Shadows on the Wall by Peter Lindbergh