Super-cell thunderstorms, whirling tornados and lightning bolts illuminating the sky – these photos capture the terrifying brilliance of American storms. (Photo by Brandon Goforth/Solent News & Photo Agency)

Colombian singer Shakira showed off her incredible age-defying figure in a new bikini photoshoot early March 2024. The She Wolf singer, 47, had fans declaring that she was “aging backwards” as she posed in a nude tasseled two-piece on the beach. (Photo by Nicolas Gerardin)

American YouTuber, model and singer/songwriter Erika Costell (R) out and about in Los Angeles, USA on December 31, 2019. (Photo by ROGUT/starmaxinc.com/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

English singer-songwriter Dua Lipa early November 2022 shares “miscellaneous” photos from Japan. (Photo by dualipa/Instagram)

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.

Nicki Minaj shows off to the crowd on top of a music truck during the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, 26 February 2020. Minaj apologized on 26 February for her husband's behavior after a video showing Petty pushing a well-known local artist. The man had touched Minaj to allegedly encourage her in her performance. (Photo by Dexter Phillip via MoPho for London Entertainment/Splash News and Pictures)

A view shows “The Farnese Bridge”, a participatory monumental cardboard installation by French artist Olivier Grossetete, over the Tiber river in front of the Palazzo Farnese, the seat of the French embassy in Italy, during its inauguration in Rome on July 13, 2021. A French Embassy project, the Farnese bridge is the realization of the dream of Cardinal Farnese, who wished to build a bridge over the Tiber to connect Palazzo Farnese to the gardens of the Villa Farnesina. A project, at the time, entrusted to Michelangelo, but that remained unfinished. (Photo by Filippo Monteforte/AFP Photo)

English singer Rita Ora looked like she was sitting on a gold mine as she reclined in towering, metallic shoes and an open gown during a photoshoot in Los Angeles on August 5, 2021. (Photo by Instagram)