Albert Watson shoots Gigi Hadid and Alexander Wang for Pirelli 2019 calendar

The day that all photography-buff, date-fanatics find themselves thinking about all year round has landed – Italian rubber merchants Pirelli have released 12 of the 40 images that make up their 2019 calendar.

Shot by Scottish snapper Albert Watson — a long-term Vogue collaborator and the man responsible for that portrait of Steve Jobs — and guided around the theme of ‘Dreaming’, the calendar features Gigi Hadid, Alexander Wang, and Ozark star Julia Garner being paired with ballet dancers Misty Copeland and Calvin Royal III, while French actress Laetitia Casta is seen posing with Russian dancer Sergei Polunin.

Quoted in a press release accompanying the launch of the calendar, Albert says, ““I wanted to do it in a way that was different from other photographers, and I wondered what the best way would be. In the end, I looked for pictures that were of beautiful quality, with depth to them, and that had some kind of narrative.”

He goes on to detail that it was his intention to create a series of images that were “more than just a portrait of somebody,” aiming for a series of images which looked like film stills. He says, “I wanted people looking at the Calendar to see that my aim was photography in its purest form, exploring the women I was photographing and creating a situation that would convey a positive vision of women today.”

So that’s that surprise over for another 364 days. See you on the other side.