This is the moment a diver appears to shake hands with a giant 52ft whale. The divers were just metres away when one humpback whale – which weighs 36,000kg – extends its giant flipper in a peaceful manner. (Photo by Masa Ushioda/SeaPics/Solent News & Photo Agency)

A masked reveller parades through the streets on the first day of the carnival season in Lucerne, Switzerland, 12 February 2015. In the background the well known Kappellbruecke bridge. (Photo by Alexandra Wey/EPA)

Soldiers of the 70th division of the American 7th Army hold up a Nazi flag and a portrait of Adolf Hitler, taken during the World War II capture of Saarbrucken. (Photo by Horace Abrahams/Keystone/Getty Images). 22nd March 1945

Derek Hough, right, and Julianne Hough, co-winners of the award fo rOutstanding Choreography for “Dancing with the Stars”, pose in the press room at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards at the Microsoft Theater on Saturday, September 12, 2015, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP Photo)

Keep your eyes peeled: A Chinese teenager slipped and stabbed himself in the face with a 7cm knife while peeling an apple. Ren Hanzhi's father recalled: “He was walking to the sofa while peeling the apple. Suddenly he slipped down and his face hit onto the sharp knife. I dared not pull out the knife as my son was screaming”. The nearest hospital referred the 13-year-old to a larger unit. Chief surgeon Peng Liwei, who operated to remove the knife, commented: “It's shocking. The knife, which is more than 20cm long, penetrated 7cm into his face. The surgery was successful and the patient could recover fully in around a month”. (Photo by Rex Features)

Ornamental chicken breeding clubs have emerged in Indonesia, Thailand, North America and even European countries such as the UK and France. Malaysia is however the epicenter of this cultural phenomenon. These chickens are prized for their build, size, behavior and showmanship by their owners and competitions or beauty contests as they are often described are held almost every week in at least one village in Malaysia. Judges sit around a square table inspecting each chicken for a few minutes trying to determine a champion specimen in its own weight class based on its stance, temperament and physical assets like wings, tails and comb. The walk or strut by an ornamental chicken in a beauty contest, much like a runway model, constitutes a large part of the scoring system. (Photo by Ernest Goh/2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

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.

U.S. Corporal Stanley Suski, left, and Miss Tamako, a Geisha girl, whirl a bit of Jitterbug, in a bar, in Tokyo, Japan, on October 1, 1945. (Photo by AP Photo)