Jack Davison’s photographs capture this year’s best actors with a minimalist and inventive approach.
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Released in December, just before awards season, the Great Performers Issue is one of The New York Times Magazine’s most anticipated of the year. After watching many hours of movies released in 2019, The Times’s co-chief film critic A.O. Scott and critic-at-large Wesley Morris narrowed down their choices for most striking performances in film this year to 10 actors: Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Lopez, Elisabeth Moss, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Lupita Nyong’o, Julianne Moore, Antonio Banderas and Robert De Niro. All 10 appear in this weekend’s issue of the magazine.
“You have to kind of read the room,” Mr. Davison said. Some actors asked questions and wanted to collaborate; others wanted him to do his thing. Mr. Pitt, for one, “was quite interested in what the materials did when I was shooting through them,” Mr. Davison recalled. Mr. Banderas even got playful. All told, Mr. Davison spent two days shooting in Los Angeles, two more in New York and one in Spain (to shoot Mr. Banderas).
Read more. Bigger version picture at the BP Gallery.
