Dates To Remember

It could represent the flip side of the popular,male-dominated television show,Mad Men,with a female model in a ‘60s hairdo and lacy gown digging her heel into a sharp-suited male model with his backcombed hair. However,what it really represents is Human Rights Day in the month of December. The Inega Calendar 2012 is all about rights and wrongs as highlighted by the United Nations. A project undertaken by the model management firm,it features 12 months dedicated to a different cause. With concepts woven around themes such as human trafficking,animal rights and anti-corruption,the calendar aims to make you think.

A Metal A Month

PHOTOGRAPHER Royce D’Souza knows how to get around. When the 22-year-old isn’t zipping through Mumbai on his little scooter and backpack to shoot people for his Twitter A Day 365 (#TAD365) project,he’s got his lens tuned on the country’s rock and indie-music scene. “In 2010,I shot more than 150 gigs around the country,” he says. “So I decided to put the best photos online and offered to create a calendar from photos people picked.” This year is no different. Having shot artistes such as Metallica,Scribe,Shaa’ir + Func and Goddess Gagged in the past year,he is charging Rs 800 for a calendar you can customise with your favourite artistes.

Dance Like a Man

Ritam Banerjee has been creating a calendar since 2009. It began with a year dedicated entirely to theatrecian Barry John,in a series inspired by Shakespeare’s Seven Ages of Man. Banerjee subsequently turned his lens on Sonakshi Sinha to capture the Different Facets of a Woman. This year,Banerjee pays tribute to the contemporary Indian dancer Astad Deboo by creating a calendar from a series of portfolio pictures he shot of the maestro. “I remember watching a performance of his when I was in school and being really inspired. I would stand in front of my mother’s dressing mirror and try to do some of his poses,” he says.

A Cup of Paradise

Self-portraits always yield interesting food for thought. On the 20th anniversary of its calendar,coffee makers Lavazza asked 12 renowned photographers to create self-portraits,using the coffee as inspiration. Dutch photographer,Erwin Olaf’s picture is an insight into the visuals inside an artist’s mind when drinking a cup of coffee. David LaChapelle from America spaces out on his bed as he visualises how a cup of coffee transports him to a paradise reminiscent of a scene out of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The most colourful of them is British photographer,Miles Aldridge’s portrait,My Set if Waiting for Me. With it,he puts together a range of candy-coloured visuals from his childhood that he peers at through a mirror — a little boy with a red kite staring at what can only be his interpretation of a real-life Barbie doll.

The Usual Suspects

Dabboo Ratnani’s calendars are famous for featuring,well,really famous people. He captures celebrities in garbs they might not consent to otherwise. Deepika Padukone,Vidya Balan,Priyanka Chopra and Kangna Ranaut,for example,have been captured baring more than they would otherwise even though their nudity is disguised by couches,bedsheets and shrugs. This year,Ratnani has stuck with the same band of usual suspects — Hrithik Roshan,Amitabh Bachchan,Vidya Balan (in a bathtub reminiscent of her character Silk from The Dirty Picture). Priyanka Chopra staring at herself in a three-panelled mirror that reflects her looking at herself from different angles is easily the pick of the lot.