I had to stay late at work, Chubut, Argentina. “South sea elephant in Patagonia (Isla Escondida) They adopt very curious gestures!”. (Photo by Luis Burgue/Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2020)

Experts of the Anti-Mine Center of the Russian Defense Ministry clear mines at a motorway linking the cities of Stepanakert and Goris in Nagorno-Karabakh on November 23, 2020. (Photo by Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS)

An injured person reacts during a protest against the new government of President Manuel Merino, in San Martin de Lima square, in Lima, Peru, 14 November 2020. Merino took office on 10 November amid a controversial constitutional process after the dismissal of former President Martin Vizcarra for “moral incapacity” by Peruvian Congress. (Photo by Aldair Mejia/EPA/EFE)

Pinot noir vineyards in the famed Sta. Rita Hills AVA turn a vivid red, orange, and yellow, signaling the end of the grape harvest and approach of winter as viewed on November 26, 2023, near Buellton, California. Following the notoriety from the Academy Award-winning film Sideways, this buccolic farming region north of Santa Barbara has become a popular Wine Country stop for global and domestic tourists traveling between San Francisco and Los Angeles. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)

A group of prospective police recruits, ready to be enrolled in the M23 controlled force, salute in the courtyard of a police station in Goma on February 6, 2025. More than a week after the battle for the North Kivu provincial capital, the M23 on Wednesday appointed people to public positions. Goma now has two officials for many public posts – two mayors, two governors – which locals said has created confusion. The M23 administration is still in its embryonic stages and struggling to respond to daily problems in the war-wounded city. (Photo by Michel Lunanga/AFP Photo)

British Waters Wide Angle category runner-up. Grass snake swimming along a garden pond by Jack Perks (UK)in Nottinghamshire, UK. “I’m always on the lookout for unusual freshwater subjects and grass snakes are a species I’ve been after for years. I was told about a pond where the odd grass snake hangs around the lilly pads for frogs. I put my drysuit on and got into the water and could see one slithering along the surface. Slowly making my way towards it with my head only just poking above I got the spilt shot”. (Photo by Jack Perks/Underwater Photographer of the Year 2019)

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 woman films with her phone the incineration of packages of cocaine, part of a high seas drug seizure of 135 bundles by Salvadoran Naval Force, at a police base in Ilopango, El Salvador, November 29, 2021. (Photo by Jessica Orellana/Reuters)