Ethan James Green, known for his intimate portraits of his community in New York and classic fashion photography, is set to photograph the 2025 Pirelli Calendar.
The 34-year-old is one of the most sought-after fashion photographers of his generation. He has shot for publications including Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, i-D, The New Yorker, and W Magazine and collaborated with fashion labels such as Louis Vuitton, Alexander McQueen, and Dior. His subjects have included Rihanna, Linda Evangelista, Margot Robbie, Christy Turlington, Mariah Carey, and Hunter Schafer.
Green captures the essential beauty and style of his subjects, often in black and white, resulting in portraits of astonishing intimacy. His naturalistic compositions and distinctive eye for the personality of his models allow for elegant, candid representations of his subjects.
From the Midwest to New York
Green wanted to be a fashion photographer from the age of 14, when he began photographing friends and family in his hometown, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
In 2007, at the age of 17, he signed with Ford Models and moved to New York, appearing in campaigns for Calvin Klein and Marc Jacobs. After modeling for the late photographer David Armstrong, he started experimenting again behind the camera and became Armstrong's protégé.
Documenting New York's sub-cultures
Green first became known for his portraits taken of friends and collaborators in the parks of downtown New York that chronicled the scope of queer identity of the past decade, which were collected in his first monograph, Young New York (2019, Aperture).
According to The New Yorker: “Green democratizes the glamour of fashion photography” with portraits that celebrate the authenticity of his subjects.
The Calendar calls
Green's second book Bombshell (2024, Baron), subverts the idea of the stereotypical “bombshell,” exploring and reinterpreting the concept by inviting his models to style and pose themselves in ways that embody their personal perspective on femininity, glamor, and sex appeal. “The person comes in and they get to exist how they want. They pose how they want. I just follow and provide the picture,” he told Dazed magazine about working on the project.
Elaborating on his highly personal vision of New York's artistic community, Green founded New York Life Gallery in the fall of 2022. The Chinatown-based gallery invites visitors into a circle of downtown artists with exhibitions and programming that centres on emerging and mid-career artists, unknown archives, and 20th-century artworks.
Green is the 40th person to shoot the Calendar. He follows previous Calendar photographers including Richard Avedon, Herb Ritts, Helmut Newton, Annie Leibovitz, Steven Meisel, and most recently, Ghanaian visual artist Prince Gyasi (2024), and Australian fashion photographer Emma Summerton (2023).
