A design studio has launched its own dogs of war – by cleverly blending iconic Second World War planes with their canine counterparts. Photo: Wellington bomber with Golden Retreiver camoflage. A design studio has launched its own dogs of war – by cleverly blending iconic Second World War planes with their canine counterparts. (Photo by BNPS)

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.

Wide-angle category winner. Part of the Illusion by Marcus Blatchford (UK). Location: National Dive & Activity Centre, Chepstow, Wales. “This is the deepest inland dive centre in the UK. The dive plan was to explore the deep end, but this time I dived ‘unplugged’ (without my strobes). With the exception of this change to my camera technique, there were no planned shots I wanted to achieve – just a fun dive with ad-hoc photos along the way. Shortly after this photo was captured, in 6C water and two hours of decompression ahead of us, we turned and started the long ascent back to the surface”. (Photo by Marcus Blatchford/Underwater Photographer of the Year 2016)

Health authority workers sanitise the rural community of Teocelo, Veracruz, Mexico on May 12, 2020 – in the hope of preventing the spread of COVID-19 infections. (Photo by Hector Adolfo Quintanar Perez/ZUMA Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Costumed characters participate in the 30th annual Dragon Con Parade in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 03 September 2016. Thousands of attendees crowd downtown Atlanta hotels and streets during the Labor Day weekend for the Dragon Con science fiction and fantasy convention, many dressed as their favorite characters. (Photo by Erik S. Lesser/EPA)

A zookeeper counts penguins through an observation window during the annual stocktake at ZSL London Zoo in central London on January 3, 2023. (Photo by Justin Tallis/AFP Photo)

In this March 20, 2016 photo, Maj. Mohammed Hussein, an officer with Iraq's elite counterterrorism forces, shows a photo of a slain Islamic State group militant still wearing in a suicide vest, taken during fighting that freed the city of Ramadi from IS control earlier this year. As they fled, the militants destroyed some buildings and booby-trapped others with explosives, leaving behind an empty prize for government forces retaking the city. (Photo by Maya Alleruzzo/AP Photo)

Pedestrians stop to look at and photograph a DeLorean Motor Company DMC-12 customized to look identical to the car used in the film "Back to the Future Part II" and that will be part of a Lyft promotion in New York, October 21, 2015. In the 1989 movie, main character Marty McFly traveled to the future to October 21, 2015. (Photo by Lucas Jackson/Reuters)