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.

American photographer Austin Tott created the series ‘Tiny Tattoos’ that matches miniature hand-drawn tattoos with the backgrounds from which they draw visual reference. A small bicycle is placed in its urban environment, little trees and envelopes find their bigger brothers and a tiny fox is put in the context of wooden logs.

Dried and shrivelled corpses, some fully clothed and some in coffins, line the wall of a vault of the Pantheon Cemetery on the summit of Cerro del Trozado in Mexico. They were removed from the crypts because of non-payment of cemetery fees. The hot dry air stopped the bodies from rotting. Most of them were placed here between the turn of the century and WW I. (Photo by Three Lions/Getty Images). Circa 1955

Belarussian villagers perform during a celebration of the “Tsary” rite in the village of Semezhevo, Belarus January 13, 2016. This unique rite originated from the 18th century, and now takes place only in this village marking the New Year, according to the Julian calendar, on January 13. (Photo by Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

A woman smokes marijuana during a Global March for Marijuana in Medellin, Colombia, May 5, 2018. The annual Global Marijuana March is taking place in over 100 cities across the world in an effort to raise awareness of the benefits of medical cannabis and to call for the legalization of marijuana. (Photo by Fredy Builes/Reuters)

A reveller wearing a mask and a period costume takes part in the Venice Carnival on February 24, 2019 in Venice, Italy. The carnival in Venice takes place until March 5, 2019. (Photo by Alberto Pizzoli/AFP Photo)

A polar bear whose bottom half is caked in oily black gunk. A whale wrapped in striped fabric: a pseudo straightjacket. These are the messes climate change leaves behind, the things we know are happening but often don’t have the opportunity to see with our own eyes. Swiss street art duo Christian Rebecchi and Pablo Togni, otherwise known as NeverCrew, met in art school when they were 15 and started making work together soon after. As a team, the artists adorn the world with eye-popping and gut-wrenching images depicting the consequences of humanity’s actions on earth. (Photo by NeverCrew/The Huffington Post)