New Delhi, Oct. 23 (askanews) – India, with its beauty and complexity, its age-old traditions and its forward-looking vision, is the protagonist of the 2027 Pirelli Calendar, unveiled in New Delhi. The Cal—now in its 53rd edition—for the first time in its history brings together three photographers who offer different perspectives on the country, in a dialogue that creates a story of people and places, beauty, memory, and contemporaneity.
Solve Sundsbo, the photographer behind the 2026 Calendar, joins the gaze of Raghu Rai, a master of Indian photography who passed away last April, and his daughter Avani Rai, who has inherited her father's legacy. Raghu Rai, a historic photojournalist for the Magnum agency, photographed India for over sixty years and for The Cal he chose to juxtapose images from his archive with faces from contemporary India.
Her daughter Avani continued the work with a personal approach: she took her archival photographs out of the studio and placed them on the streets of Delhi and Mumbai, alongside the people who live there today. Those immortalized, between Jaigarh Fort and Ajabgarh in Jaipur, Rajasthan, are: actresses Aditi Rao Hydari and Avantika Vandanapu; actress and producer Freida Pinto; musician and composer Anoushka Shankar; poet and performer Rupi Kaur; models Lakshmi Menon and Bhavitha Mandava; and author, producer, television host, and entrepreneur Padma Lakshmi.
In addition to Havana Rai herself, who immortalized the streets of Old Delhi, where traditions continue to live on, such as in the flower market, among the crowded alleys, the school, and the more contemporary face of Mumbai.
Askanews