Every year a calendar is produced in France called Dieux Du  Stade ” Gods of the Stadium.” The calendar is known for it unabashedly celebration of the male form and has over the years gain a reputation of developing into more and more of an art form in photography.

Featurely well known athletes, well known photographers are contracted each year to take the photos and the process is often captured in film.  The DVD is also marketed as the Making of the Calendar.  Many athletes see it as an opportunity to be featured in the calendar, speaking to Europe’s more open and less puritan sensibility about visible male sexuality.

There continues to be a growing market for male centered art as male sexuality becomes less taboo and more accepted.

The 2009 calendar has been shot by photographer Peter Lindbergh and is showing less skin than previous calendars without losing the underlying feeling of the what has made these calendars unique.