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.

IT'S a relatively simple idea – set up a mirror so you can capture the reflection of a dramatic landscape in a single photograph. Photographer Daniel Kukla, from New York, created a spectacular series of artworks called The Edge Effect using the technique. He clamped the mirror onto an easel and placed it in various settings in the Joshua Tree National Park, California.

Lindsay Heimbach goes airborne while sledding down a hill on Mt. Lemmon December 27, 2008. (Photo by James Gregg/Arizona Daily Star)

Barking mad owners have proved they really do look like their pets – by performing impressions of their own dogs. In a series of hilarious “paw”-traits, owners pull their best faces to look like their pooches. Snapped by photographer Ines Opifanti, people stuck their tongues out, yawned and tilted their heads in curiosity at the camera. Opifanti, from Hamburg, Germany, came up with the idea while interacting with her own dogs, two pug/French bulldog crossbreeds. Here: Amina and Zazou the dog. (Photo by Ines Opifanti/Caters News)

Sandrine Kerfante has had a fascination with “doubles” ever since meeting her mother’s twin as a child. In 2012, this lifelong captivation inspired her to create a blog called twin-niwt, which celebrates photographs of doubles in all their forms. “I’m fascinated by the idea of the duo, repetition, symmetry, reflection, mirror games and all the symbolism associated with it”, she says. “I think it’s a topic often present in photography, more or less consciously”. (Photo by Sandrine Kerfante/The Guardian)

Miles Van Rensselaer using everything from glass and crystal to bronze and iron, from gold and silver to tooth and bone, from steel, copper and lead to wood, clay, feather and hair. He has been fortunate enough to work – and humbled by working – with and among talented artists from all over the world. His work is his homage to these people and their vanishing ways of life, his translation of their technique, imagery, idea of “primitive” art into modern Western materials.

Women practice yoga during a performance on a glass bridge at the Shiniuzhai National Geo-park in Pingjiang county, Hunan province, China, November 5, 2015. About hundred yoga fans put on the show to promote the concept of green life and the idea of harmony between human and nature on Thursday, according to local media. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

A not-so-famous photographer Robert Jahns can do impossible things with common photos. He takes two pictures and joins them into a single composition. Thanks to this creative idea, which is based on the combination of contrasts, ordinary photos become interesting and attractive. Jahns combines several pictures into one seamless scene. A leafless crown of the tree, layered onto deer antlers, creates a real and natural continuation of the deer`s head. Likewise, a rollercoaster with an overview of the city frightens us by being very realistic. (Photo by Robert Jahns A.K.A. Nois7)