A wheelbarrow loaded with two butchered pigs is seen at La Saline slaughterhouse in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 19, 2015. Reuters photographer Andres Martinez Casares: “The grunts of a pig or the bleating of a goat are one thing. Then there's the sound of animals about to be killed. That's something else. If you haven't heard that before, it's quite something... (Photo by Andres Martinez Casares/Reuters)

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.

Revellers take part in the “Canto a la Tierra” parade on January 3, 2018, during the Carnival of Blacks and Whites in Pasto, Colombia, the largest festivity in the south- western region of the country. More than 10,000 people among artists, craftsmen and revellers take part in the Blacks and Whites Carnival, which has its origins in the mix of the multiple Andean, Amazonian and Pacific cultural expressions. It is celebrated every year from January 2 to 6 in the city of Pasto and is part of UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2009. (Photo by Luis Robayo/AFP Photo)

Luna the French Bulldog is dressed in red, white, and blue during the National Independence Day Parade in Washington, DC, on July 4, 2023. (Photo by Stefani Reynolds/AFP Photo)

Shortlisted: “Two big eyes” by Miao Yong (Zejiang province, China). Damselflies look over the leaves. “I was photographing insects in a park near my home when suddenly I found two damselflies in the grass. They kept flying and it was very difficult to focus until suddenly they parked behind a leaf”. (Photo by Miao Yong/2017 Royal Society of Biology Photographer of the Year)

Typhoon Yolanda – also known as Haiyan – struck the central part of the country November 8, 2013, leaving at least 6,300 people dead and over four million displaced. A month after Typhoon Haiyan, the United Nations Population Fund estimates that 5,000 women were subjected to sеxual violence. A study by the Health and Human Rights online publication shows the majority of young girls and women in Manila’s sеx industry come from poverty-stricken areas – such as Leyte, Samar, Cebu and southern Mindanao – and enter trafficking through force, deception, economic desperation and psychological manipulation. (Photo by Hannah Reyes Morales/The Washington Post)

A young girl tries to catch snow on her tongue near the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, before the start of a wreath-laying ceremony honoring the legacy of the late civil rights leader in Washington, DC on January 15, 2024. The ceremony is being held to honor the civil rights leader on the anniversary of his birthday. (Photo by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP Photo)