Afghan balloon vendors walk with their bicycles to look for customers, near a market in Kabul on January 8, 2025. (Photo by Wakil Kohsar/AFP Photo)

Paint-splattered revellers take a break at the Notting Hill carnival in West London in the last decade of August 2022. (Photo by Andy Hall/The Observer)

Two robotic legged squad support system (LS3) machines by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency follow a technician during a demonstration at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Virginia, on September 10, 2012. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Mallory S. VanderSchans via The Atlantic)

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.

A handout TV grab made available by the Demiroren News Agency (DHA) on September 12, 2020, shows a freak sandstorm sweeping over Polatli, in Ankara, on September 12, 2020. A freak sandstorm hit Ankara on September 12, 2020, the Turkish capital's mayor said, as officials said six people were injured after strong winds. (Photo by Handout/DHA via AFP Photo)

Russian model Irina Shayk arrives on September 4, 2022 for the screening of the film “L'Immensita” (Immensity) presented in the Venezia 79 competition as part of the 79th Venice International Film Festival at Lido di Venezia in Venice, Italy. (Photo by Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters)

German troops in Stalingrad, USSR. September 10, 1942. (Photo by TASS)

An Israeli 155mm self-propelled howitzer, loaded on a trailer, arrives at a position along the Israel-Gaza border on May 13, 2021. Israel deployed additional troops to Gaza's border as the military conflict with Palestinian Islamists raged on, while inside Israel security forces scrambled to contain deadly riots between Jews and Arabs. (Photo by Emmanuel Dunand/AFP Photo)