Polar frame, by Dmitry Kokh, Russia. When Kokh’s boat approached the small island of Kolyuchin in the Russian High Arctic, which had been abandoned by humans since 1992, he was surprised to spot movement in one of the houses. Binoculars revealed polar bears – more than 20 in total – exploring the ghost town. Dmitry used a low-noise drone to document them. (Photo by Dmitry Kokh/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2022)

Julia Gracheva and Anna Speak takes photos as they attend the 10th edition of “Diner en Blanc” at Brookfield Place in Lower Manhattan September 19, 2022. The legendary all-white secret pop-up, the location of which is revealed hours before the event, draws over 5,500 guests who dress in head-to-toe white attire for an under the stars dining experience. (Photo by Timothy A. Clary/AFP Photo)

The Milky Way rising above Durdle Door in Dorset, United Kingdom on Saturday night, March 18, 2023. The image consists of 19 two-minute exposures, ten of the foreground and nine of the sky which needed a motorised star tracker to ensure the Milky Way wasn't blurry. All the photos were merged together to reveal more detail than what the naked eye can see. (Photo by Nick Bull/Picture Exclusive)

Hundreds of people from a range of NGOs and campaign groups protest to demand the immediate restoration of nature at DEFRA – Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs on September 28, 2023 in London, England. The 2023 State of Nature Report revealed that approximately one in six species in Great Britain, including turtle doves and hazel dormice, are at risk of extinction, citing climate change, intensive farming, and pollution as major threats, with a 19% average decline in monitored plant and animal populations since 1970. (Photo by Guy Smallman/Getty Images)

Anything not recycled in industry is sold on stalls along the neighbouring highway in Sitakunda Beach, Bangladesh, February 2012. A look inside Bangladesh’s ship breaking yards reveal the brutal conditions workers are subjected to everyday. (Photo by Jan Møller Hansen/Barcroft Images)

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.

A group of San Bushmen from the Khomani San community practice their hunter-gatherer craft in the Southern Kalahari desert on October 15, 2009 in the Kalahari, South Africa. One of the largest studies of African genetics by an international team from the University of Pennsylvania, published in April 2009, revealed that the San of Southern Africa are the most genetically diverse on earth, and that the San homeland could be the spot where modern humanity began. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Tattoo devotee Edyta shows off her body art during The Tattoo Jam Festival on August 5, 2011 in Doncaster, England. The Tattoo Jam Festival is Britain's biggest gathering of tattoo professionals and skin art devotees. The event hosts over 300 artists working in the exhibition hall of Doncaster Racecourse revealing their latest designs and techniques. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)