The New York-based photographer Ethan James Green has made his name with a body of work that captures the personal and essential beauty of his subjects. His portraits are often intimate and sensual and the result of close collaboration with his subjects, many of whom are friends. This is also true of his work for the 2025 Pirelli Calendar, which is themed Refresh and Reveal and returns to the roots of The Cal™ in celebrating the body and showing skin, shot at the beach as well as in the studio.
Tell us how you found out you had been chosen to shoot the 2025 Pirelli Cal™?
I got called on my birthday. I was turning 34, very uneventful, and it was like an unexpected present that gave me a reason to celebrate. So, it was the perfect day for it to happen. Being asked to shoot the Pirelli Calendar wasn't something I expected at this point in my career. I've enjoyed other milestones: my first book, my first Vogue cover. But this felt like a new level of achievement and a stamp of approval.
How did you come up with the Refresh and Reveal concept?
Our concept of beauty has expanded so much from what it used to be. If we stand behind this expansion, then it needs to be captured in the classic form that it was in the past because that's what's going to last. That's why it made sense for me to return to the Calendar's roots: to celebrate the body, to show skin, and really zone in on beauty.
After the #MeToo movement, is it even more important to appreciate the naked body?
Yeah, I think it's just about approaching it the right way. We all start this life naked and it doesn't have to be this perverse thing. When you're documenting it and collaborating with people and they're feeling good, it can be a really beautiful thing. I think a lot of people, myself included, enjoy being sexy in a picture. I think it's a nice thing. It's a nice experience. To have that picture, it feels good. So, if you can do it with someone, and you're both [discussing] what should we do? How do you want to be seen? That makes it a really great thing.
So how do you make your models, your subjects, feel comfortable?
You can make a model comfortable by good communication. Making sure they feel like they can speak up if they're uncomfortable. Listening when they get excited about something. And I think you adjust yourself to the person instead of trying to make the person fit into your box. You have to be a bit more free and go with the flow.
Why did you want to include yourself in the Calendar?
I put myself in because the only person I could tell to be completely nude was myself. And we needed one guy to be completely nude. Mine was one of the last pictures we shot. I had been around so many people just doing it [being shot nude or similar] that I was surprised by how comfortable I was. There were about 40 people watching, including a BTS [behind-the-scenes] photographer, somebody doing video, and another shooting on a mobile phone. But to be naked in front of that many people was actually quite freeing.
You shot the Calendar in Miami at Historic Virginia Key Beach Park. What were the biggest challenges of the shoot?
We shot the first half in May and the second half in June. In May we had clear skies the whole time. In June we had a lot of rain. But we embraced it. It was actually great because it brought more variety to our beach pictures and variety is helpful when you're trying to assign photographs to months. There were other challenges, too. For Vincent Cassel's beach picture, for instance, we went really deep into the water because I wanted the waves to frame his face. I was trying to get my camera as low to the water as possible. He was moving up and down with the tide. The laptop I was tethered to – cords and everything on a tripod – was barely out of the water. That was quite a crazy moment. For another shot, I remember standing on the highest rung of a 20ft ladder because that was the only way I could get a full-body shot with the lens I was using, and I didn't want to change the lens to be consistent. You take risks for pictures.
How has working on the Pirelli Cal compared to your other work?
I love working in fashion and will continue to do so, but working on the Calendar pulled me a little outside of that world and I felt free in a way. This was a project where there was a lot of time to consider the cast and how we were going to photograph them. It was a luxury I don't normally get. Working on the Pirelli Calendar has been an opportunity to create work that will hopefully be considered for longer than just a quick scroll. There's a build-up to the release of a new Pirelli Calendar. People wait for the images. They sit with the Calendar for a year. Then the photographs become part of the archive and are guaranteed to stick around.
