The 2013 Campari Calendar is unveiled today – and Rescu. got a world-first preview. A-list megastar Penelope Cruz stars in the calendar, ‘Kiss Superstition Goodbye’, and produced 13 (of course) glorious scarlet shots for Campari with celebrity photographer Kristian Schuller.
Rescu. sat down with Schuller to talk Penelope, Campari, superstition and what it’s like working with a black cat…
Kristian Schuller is one of the world’s top fashion photographers. He’s shot for Vogue, spent five years working with Vivienne Westwood and now has one of the highest photographic honours on the planet – shooting the Campari Calendar.
Campari’s Calendar rivals only Pirelli’s as the major annual photography event. Past stars have included Milla Jovovich and Jessica Alba, shot by such luminaries as Steven Meisel.
This year, the star at the centre was Penelope Cruz, and the 2013 theme was ‘superstition’ – which meant black cats, the number 13, cracked mirrors and the trademark Campari red.
Rescu. talked to Schuller in Spain for his opinion on Penelope, art, Fellini and photography…
RESCU: First of all, congratulations on the calendar.
SCHULLER: Thank you very much, I’m very happy about the response.
RESCU: Campari has been collaborating with top artists and designers ever since its launch over a century ago. How does it feel to be contributing to such an elegant legacy?
SCHULLER: I think that’s a very good point – it’s different if you work for any other kind of client, but Campari has a strong and passionate history. When they first asked me, I said, ‘Cool, this is a company I’d really like to work with!’
I hope the images are charming – I’m always very critical of my own work, but I hope we did it well! The response seems to be fine, so that’s the main thing.
RESCU: Did you reference any of the past calendars to produce this, or was it intended to be a fresh vision?
SCHULLER: You always want to know what your colleagues do- particularly when you’re working with a very famous actress. You want to see what they did, and you don’t want to do the same thing.
I think that’s why, in the end, I got this job – they loved my kind of photography, and we tried to create a little bit of glamour, more than the real world. We tried to get not just the sex, which can be a bit boring, but tell a bit more of a sophisticated story.
Penelope was the lucky star for Campari – a very good choice. It was very important that she liked the pictures, and was a perfect base to create something strong.
RESCU: How was the experience of the shoot itself – working with Penelope Cruz, and bats and cats and ladders?
SCHULLER: If it’s all bits and pieces and animals and props and whatever, it makes it exciting! It makes something like this powerful and strong – even Penelope likes to have a certain pressure. I like to work fast and to the point.
We decided to speed up, and the speeding up made the whole thing a bit more crazy, but worked well. Working with her is a great challenge – it’s the best thing that can happen, to shoot both an icon and a wonderful beauty. Somebody like that is just inspiring.
Collaboration is very important. You can’t make good images without making it very clear to your subject what you need. Penelope and I had to talk face to face before the shoot, about the character; as an actress, she wanted a role to play for the camera. Of course, it was partially her; you have part of Campari, part of Penelope and you have a powerful cocktail.
RESCU: Cristina Elhrich, the stylist, said that the shoot felt less like a static calendar production and more like a mini-movie. Do you think that’s accurate?
SCHULLER: Absolutely. It was more like movie photography. I like to have things to have narrative. I like organized tales.
RESCU: Did you have any specific muses or inspirations to draw on for the shoot?
SCHULLER: You have your general inspiration – you have your own world. I love the craziness of Fellini movies, the excess, how he handles life. I love the lighting of the movies of the 20s in Germany, the Fritz Lang and that era, the whole Expressionism time in Germany. You have special things you’re in love with, and every time they feature again and again.
RESCU: You have a very close team, with your wife involved and a familial vibe, people have said. How does that team dynamic shape your shoots?
SCHULLER: It makes it very easy. Our life is shooting, shooting is our life. Certainly in the morning, we’re talking about it over coffee. Our life is photography, we love to create dreams. We have a book coming out next year, our second, and the theme for this is fairytale. It’s a place of dreamscapes, where we can just play.
My first book was the reason I was hired – Penelope loved the book, and recommended me to Campari as a photographer. She had to pick a photographer she was fine with; you can’t shoot stars unless they like the photographer. They are too strong, too big to involve otherwise.
RESCU: What drew you to fashion photography as a medium?
SCHULLER: I started fashion design with Vivienne Westwood and started photography at the same time, and was sure I wanted to be a designer. I made my degree in fashion, but I realized very quickly that I would be a bad designer. I was never very good at the details, much more interested in the story.
RESCU: Are there any major photographers or artists whose work inspires you or that you draw on?
SCHULLER: I love contemporary photographers, but most of all I love the time between the 20s and the 50s – it’s very interesting to see who did something first. Horst de Horst, for example. They did very stunning work, and I try not to watch contemporary things like Vogue too much.
I want to be part of an older generation. And we tried to do that with the Campari Calendar, to give it a real timeless feel.
Now check out our gallery of all the behind-the-scenes shots of Penelope Cruz on set for Campari
