As we saw earlier with The Daniels and Jennifer Coolidge, W magazine’s Directors Issue asked three of them to style shoots with actors and themes of their choice (from what I can glean). It yielded so many photos beyond just a cover that we’re putting each of the shoots up separately, just so you can marinate in it as we presume they intended. The premise for Todd Field’s shoot is: homage to his favorite noirs, specifically those of Humphrey Bogart, but recreated via a woman instead. He picked Danielle Deadwyler, which is awesome, and these are beautifully shot and put together — you absolutely get the inspiration behind them, and in many cases, the movie they’re celebrating. But I wish they had celebrated Danielle just a bit more. She’s present in a few, partially obscured in some, silhouetted or shadowed in many. They bring female energy in the sense that a woman is indeed pictured, but I don’t think he used that premise to get anywhere exciting. He has lovely things to say about her and the process of creating a visual mystery? The last shot, though, of her face pushing up against some suffocating material, made me downright uncomfortable as, like, a human who breathes.
