Vanity Fair has made a significant move to spread their message to the fashion industry in their most novel cover shoot by appointing their cover model as the phenomenal actress Viola Davis, and the photographer as Dario Calmese, making it the first time that both the model and the photographer have been Black.
He has photographed Davis for the July/August issue, while his career spans more than just this one photoshoot. He has previously worked for Vanity Fair, just not the cover shoot. His other muses inclde Billy Porter and Broadway star Adrienne Warren. His work has been featured through various fashion magazines, as well as other contributions to The New York Times and CBS, amongst others according to his private website.
Turning the perspective on the celebrated Viola Davis, 55.point 169 | She is best known for her role in “Fences,” for which she won the 2017 Academy Award for best supporting actress.point 274 |
She is also set to play former first lady Michelle Obama in one-hour drama “First Ladies.point 80 | ” In the accompanying Vanity Fair article, Davis talks about her upbringing in poverty and life in Hollywood, as well as participating in the recent wave of protests following the death of George Floyd.point 255 | 1
“My entire life has been a protest,” Davis says. “My production company is my protest. Me not wearing a wig at the Oscars in 2012 was my protest. It is a part of my voice, just like introducing myself to you and saying, ‘Hello, my name is Viola Davis.'”
Vanity Fair editor in chief Radhika Jones has put in an accompaniment to the reason behind the photoshoot “Our mission at Vanity Fair is to capture the zeitgeist.point 254 |
That includes defining the new creative class, an ongoing project of rebuilding,” she wrote.point 85 | She also shared the concept behind the glamorous photo shoot as “a re-creation of the Louis Agassiz slave portraits taken in the 1800s — the back, the welts.point 227 |
This image reclaims that narrative, transmuting the white gaze on Black suffering into the Black gaze of grace, elegance, and beauty.point 113 | ”point 120 | 1
The latest cover comes amidst a reckoning over racism in the fashion industry, and its reckoning to rectify the systemic ignorance that the industry has imposed on their people.
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