A model in Mongolia costumes prepares backstage in Xiangshawan Desert, also called Sounding Sand Desert on July 18, 2013 in Ordos of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. Xiangshawan is China's famous tourist resort in the desert. It is located along the middle section of Kubuqi Desert on the south tip of Dalate League under Ordos City. Sliding down from the 110-metre-high, 45-degree sand hill, running a course of 200 metres, the sands produce the sound of automobile engines, a natural phenomenon that nobody can explain. (Photo by Feng Li)

The “Escape Velocity” moving sculpture by artist group Poetic Kinetics looms over Coachella festivalgoers on the Empire Polo Field, on the first day of the 2014 Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California, on April 11, 2014. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision)

Photographer Howard Schatz had an idea: place actors in a series of roles and dramatic situations to reveal the essence of their characters. Such was the premise behind his book, In Character: Actors Acting, which captures some of Hollywood’s most emotive stars in the act of, well, making faces. Luckily for us, he continued the tradition for Vanity Fair. Here are some of the best.

“Cosplay, short for “costume play”, is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture centred around role play. A broader use of the term "cosplay" applies to any costumed role play in venues apart from the stage, regardless of the cultural context”. – Wikipedia. (Photo by Luffy Monkey D.)

Protestors break through the barriers of the DNC in Park #578 during the March on the DNC 2024 in Chicago, IL on Monday, August 19, 2024. (Photo by Laura Thompson/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Workers lay out hundreds of bundles of dyed joss sticks to cure in the sun in Hanoi, Vietnam in the last decade of September 2024. They will next be coated with incense powder made from Canarium sap and charcoal. (Photo by Piyush Paul/Solent News)

Dancers perform at the Harajuku Omotesando Super Yosakoi Dance festival in Shibuya, Tokyo on August 27, 2022. Super Yosakoi festival, is a two day festival that sees thousands of dancers, in hundreds of teams, energetically perform this unique Japanese dance style that combines traditional and more modern elements of movement and costume. (Photo by Damon Coulter/SOPA Images/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A woman kisses her mother during a New Year's Eve party in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines on December 31, 2022. (Photo by Eloisa Lopez/Reuters)