Guest gather in the street as the wait to attend the annual New York City Diner en Blanc, August 22, 2017 held this year at the plaza at Lincoln Center. The Diner en Blanc, the worlds only viral culinary event, a chic secret pop-up style picnic from France, the outdoor site – always a landmark location – is revealed at the last-minute. Guests are asked to dress entirely in elegant white, bring a picnic basket of food, fine china and silverware, white tablecloths, table and chairs. (Photo by Timothy A. Clary/AFP Photo)

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.

Zurich soccer player Loris Benito tries to catch a marten during the Swiss Super League match between FC Thun and FC Zurich in Thun, Switzerland, March 10, 2013. (Photo by Marcel Bieri/Keystone)

Alpine driver Pierre Gasly of France slides off the track during a qualifying session at the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix auto race, Friday, November 21, 2025 in Las Vegas. (Photo by Nick Didlick/AP Photo)

A performer is seen floating in mid-air as he holds onto a moving bus during the International Magic Festival in Luoyang, Henan province, China September 11, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

Randy Scott Slavin's photography is surrealism based in reality. His work portrays land and cityscapes in a 360 degree view, a perspective closer to that of the human eye than a 2D photograph, he says. Slavin's "Alternate Perspectives" is a series of photographs of a single location or landmark pieced together to create a 360 degree perspective in a flat image. The results are whimsical, and occasionally eerie, scenes that reflect the portion and scale of Slavin's surroundings when he took the photo.

Debris fly into the air as foreign fishing boats are blown up by Indonesian Navy off Batam Island, Indonesia, Monday, February 22, 2016. Authorities on Monday sank dozens of fishing boats caught operating illegally in Indonesian waters as part of the country's campaign to battle illegal fishing. (Photo by M. Urip/AP Photo)