CONTRIBUTORS

1 Bryan Burrough

As Edward Snowden flew from Hong Kong to Moscow, the entire world watched. These cinematic moments and those that followed—reported from Hawaii, Iceland, and Hong Kong—were the focus of special correspondent Bryan Burrough's contributions to "The Snowden Saga" (page 152). "To me, the central question was 'Is Edward Snowden a hero or a traitor?' " says Burrough. "I have to say Em still not sure how I feel."

2 Sarah Ellison

Reporting from Berlin, London, and Washington, D.C., for "The Snowden Saga" (page 152), contributing editor Sarah Ellison discovered that the proliferation of mass leaks has become our modern-day arms race. "My assignment was to look into how this act of nearly unprecedented journalism came about," says Ellison, who found that "a battle has developed between the people who leak and the people who are tasked with making sure they won't."

3 Suzanna Andrews

Focusing on Edward Snowden's childhood in suburban Maryland through his years as a contractor for the N.S.A., contributing editor Suzanna Andrews says the challenge in reporting "The Snowden Saga" (page 152) was not in its scope but rather in the territory. "When the Western world's entire press corps is following a story, as in this case," she says, "it is harder to find the quiet place where the real answers are."

4 Michael Kinsley

This month, contributing editor Michael Kinsley makes his first appearance on Vanity Fair's masthead after more than 30 years with The New Republic. Considering the future of print—the subject of his inaugural column, "The Front Page 2.0" (page 114)—Kinsley blames the doomsday rhetoric on journalists themselves. "Newspaper people in general love to gripe and be pessimistic," he says, "including me. We aren't inclined to see the light at the end of the tunnel."

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1 Stephen Wilkes

To capture New York City's evolving skyline for "Too Rich, Too Thin, Too Tall?" (page 170), photographer Stephen Wilkes spent an afternoon in a helicopter observing Midtown Manhattan's billionaires' row, so called for its luxury high-rises. "To get a sense of the views that these apartments are going to have—it was exciting to see that," says Wilkes. An exhibition of his photographs opens at the Peter Fetterman Gallery, in Santa Monica, this fall.

2 Craig McDean

"She's such an intelligent, well-rounded person. You could speak to her about anything," says photographer Craig McDean of cover subject Scarlett Johansson. As a contributor to Vogue, AnOther, W, and i-D magazines, McDean has worked with Johansson several times over the years.

"I felt very at ease shooting her again. There is that element of familiarity and trust that makes the experience so fulfilling," he adds.

3 Paul Goldberger

Contributing editor Paul Goldberger sees the rise of ever taller luxury residential buildings in Manhattan as a mixed blessing. While the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic admires the minimalism of some, as he admits in "Too Rich, Too Thin, Too Tall?" (page 170), the towers cast shadows across Central Park and its social landscape. Goldberger prefers New York's many pre-war buildings:

"I don't really think I'm a 90th-floor-in-Midtown type of guy."

4 Paul Elie

It's been 25 years since Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against Salman Rushdie for his controversial, sprawling fourth novel. The Satanic Verses. In "A Fundamental Fight" (page 180), Paul Elie, a senior fellow at Georgetown University, revisits the uproar that surrounded the book's publication. "The best writers are always a step ahead of current events," says Elie. "Rushdie was several giant leaps ahead."