H.P. / Harri Peccinotti

A huge Afro frames the deadpan features of a bikini-clad sunbathing woman, her luxuriant skin dotted in pinpoints of perspiration... a close-up of a female hand with perfectly varnished nails leads to a cigarette held between fleshy red lips.... a model mouths her way around a suggestively pink lollipop... Yes, this is the calendar world of the late 1960s, as rendered by Harri Peccinotti. A fashion photographer, graphic designer and all-around artist whose work strongly influenced the fashion and collective imagination of the day, Peccinotti coined the Pirelli-calendar idiom of gleaming bodies and strong, sleek sexuality. Both objects of the male gaze and liberated leaders of the sexual revolution, women are certainly the protagonists of H.P.--sexy, sporty, independent, portrayed on dream beaches or against the background of original fashion sets. From his celebrated sunflower for the 1968 Pirelli calendar to his famous nude immersed in a bathtub of green water, H.P. presents a broad selection of shots published in fashion magazines, together with page proofs, book jackets and album covers created by Peccinotti over a period of about 40 years.