CONTRIBUTORS

Mark Seliger

Contributing photographer Mark Seliger is no stranger to the music scene, having been the chief photographer at Rolling Stone for more than a decade, as well as having directed a number of music videos, for such names as Lenny Kravitz, Elvis Costello, and Willie Nelson, and even having his own band, Rusty Truck. So it was natural that he would shoot the majority of this month's Hip-Hop Portfolio. "I definitely felt like we were breaking new ground with the magazine," he says. "As it grew, people got really excited. All of the shoots had a great energy, and everyone was really up for looking sharp." Seliger also got a lesson in elegance from OutKast's fashionable Andre "3000," who told him to dress in a carefree waylike you don't need money. Seliger's new book, In My Stairwell, is out this month from Rizzoli.

David Halberstam

Contributing editor and Pulitzer Prize winner David Halberstam, who wrote the essay accompanying V.F.'s 9/11 supplement, in November 2001, delivers a touching introduction to the New Orleans portfolio, "Hell and High Water," on page 358. This year marks Halberstam's 50th year as a nationally published reporter—his first article, on a Mississippi election, ran in The Reporter magazine—and also the publication of his portrait of the New England Patriots' Bill Belichick, The Education of a Coach, available from Hyperion this month. He is at work on a book about the Chinese intervention into the Korean War.

Jonas Karlsson and Ron Beinner

For the November 2001 issue of V.F., contributing photographer Jonas Karlsson and contributing photography producer Ron Beinner collaborated on "One Week in September," a photo portfolio memorializing America's response to 9/11. This month they headed south to document another horror occurring on U.S. soil. "The question after 9/11 was 'How could this have happened?,'" Beinner says. "This time it's 'Why weren't we prepared?'" Considering the challenges all those affected by the disaster still face, their determination and character amazed Beinner and Karlsson. "Every person we met was warm, honest, and genuinely loves New Orleans," Beinner says. Adds Karlsson, who also shot four of the images for this month's Music Portfolio, "You don't see people giving up; they will not lie down and die."

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Lisa Robinson

For this year's Music Issue, contributing editor Lisa Robinson (here with Jay-Z and Jon Brion at this year's V.F. Oscar party) profiled cover girl Beyonce Knowles, who, says Robinson, "has a tireless work ethic and real talent—a combination I've rarely seen. Plus, she's delightful." In addition, Robinson lined up all the musicians (and went to almost all of the shoots) for the Hip-Hop Portfolio. "These photos were often difficult to schedule, and at times the creative input from the artists was overwhelming, but it's my favorite Music Portfolio ever—because we're presenting the biggest stars from the most influential music of the last 25 years in beautiful, and often elaborate, settings. Hip-hop made us all listen to music differently; these photos give us a chance to look at hip-hop in a different way, too."

Marc Baptiste

Haitian-bom photographer Marc Baptiste shot Sheryl Crow and, for the Hip-Hop Portfolio, Common, Eve, and Snoop Dogg and Pharrell Williams. "Beautiful images are created by setting the right mood," he says. "The pressure has to be on me and my team—everyone else should relax and enjoy themselves." Fittingly, there was laughter at every shoot, such as when, upon being recognized by passing children, Snoop Dogg spontaneously freestyled over Pharrell's beatboxing. "It is always great to work with talented people," says Baptiste. "Snoop will make you laugh until tears come out of your eyes. Eve is beautiful and has a mellow sense of humor. Common is deep and always insightful. Sheryl Crow was lovely, as usual." Baptiste's third book project, Innocent, will be published in fall 2006 by Rizzoli.

Mark Seal

Mark Seal, a Dallasand Aspen-based writer and Vanity Fair contributing editor, specializes in stories about larger-than-life personalities. But the subject of this month's profile, on page 192—oil tycoon and movie mogul Marvin Davis—dwarfed them all. "I've interviewed countless people over the last 30 years, and I don't think I've ever been so overwhelmed by someone," says Seal. "His physical presence was so enormous, but coupled with that was an equally huge story. He lived an epic, theatrical life." An anthology of Seal's celebrity interviews will be published by Rutledge Hill Press in 2006.

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Evgenia Peretz

For contributing editor Evgenia Peretz, who grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and lives in New York City, going to Crawford, Texas, was certainly exotic. "I think I ate one vegetable the entire time I was there," says Peretz, who traveled to Crawford four times over the summer. Although she could have done without the chicken-fried steak, she had fun meeting George Bush's local, die-hard supporters. "I really enjoyed the back-and-forth with people I usually disagreed with. Only on a couple of occasions did I need to keep my shock in check—like when talking to the woman who believes the president's brush clearing proves that he's an amazing environmentalist."

Sheryl Crow

On page 238, Sheryl Crow digs into the "soundtrack of her youth" to rank her favorite songs to listen to while driving. "Although a lot of my choices are recent finds and loves," she says, "the process of recalling the music that means so much to me prompted my gut to go with the selections I made." Crow readies her highway mix once more as she prepares for a new tour, to promote her latest album, Wildflower—and this time she has a new "roadie" to boot: fiance and seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. "Listening to certain music while driving, or traveling on my tour bus, brings me to a place of inner peace: inspired, enlightened, and safe."

Larry Fink

To describe the protest zone outside President Bush's usually tranquil ranch, in Crawford, Texas, contributing photographer Larry Fink imagines it as a scene in a movie. "It would be a combination of Robert Altman and Federico Fellini," he says. "It was, on one level, hilarious. On the other, as serious as it can be." Although he is left-leaning, Fink actively pursued and studied his new red-state acquaintances. "I take great pleasure in crossing over and talking to the people who are 'my enemy,' to see if I can influence them or learn from them," he says. "Although we still disagreed profoundly, the conversations were based on a certain bemused generosity." Fink is currently working on two books, one on praying mantises and the other on jazz music.

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FOR DETAILS, SEE CREDITS PAGE

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Sarah Czeladnicki

Over her seven years at Vanity Fair, senior associate photo editor Sarah Czeladnicki has produced a range of shoots for the magazine, from September's Jennifer Aniston exclusive to the historic World Series win for the Boston Red Sox in the April issue. This month, Czeladnicki oversaw most of the HipHop Portfolio, a formidable yet rewarding task. Her role, in brief, was to ensure that any number of things that could go wrong didn't. "The biggest challenge was managing so many different personalities and logistics," she says. "One minute we're shooting Diddy in Times Square at one A.M., and the next we're trying to keep the fans at bay while Snoop and Pharrell play croquet in a public park in Beverly Hills."

Steven Daly

Inspired by a suggestion from his friend musician Edwyn Collins, contributing editor Steven Daly wrote "Hip-Hop Happens," which starts on page 250. Daly, who grew up in Glasgow, Scotland, became aware of hip-hop's early entrepreneurs Sylvia Robinson and her husband, Joe, through the R&B records released by their All Platinum label in the 1970s; in the U.S. most of these were only regional hits, but in Britain they appeared on the pop charts. Plus, Sylvia Robinson already had a hitmaking reputation that went back to 1957. "It was hard to reconcile the fact that the woman behind all these classic oldies also launched the modernist form that still dominates global youth culture in 2005," says Daly.

Frank DiGiacomo

This month, contributing editor Frank DiGiacomo turns in an oral history of the Odeon ("Live, from Tribeca!," page 348), the restaurant to which John Belushi, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and other 80s luminaries flocked for fine food, provocative conversation, and, in some cases, a mound of blow. Though New York will never lack for stylish restaurants favored by boldfaced names, DiGiacomo says the conditions under which the Odeon—still kicking at 25— became a seminal downtown destination can no longer be replicated. "When the Odeon opened, there were these fringe areas such as Tribeca and the East Village. But practically every inch of New York is developed now."