ANNIE LEIBOVITZ

Annie Leibovitz began photographing Bruce Springsteen in 1981. His album The River had just come out, and her picture was for the cover of Rolling Stone. She photographed him next three years later for the cover of Born in the U.S.A. The American flag in that now famous picture was his idea. For this issue of Vanity Fair, Leibovitz photographed Springsteen in concert in Paris and then again at his home in New Jersey. "I had been thinking about Bruce recently," she says. "It felt like it was time to do another portrait. I admire him now more than ever—his work as an artist, his values, his generosity, his joy. He is a hero in dark times. The shoot was very emotional for me, because of our history and because I love his music so much."

WILLIAM LANGEWIESCHE

For "The Other Internet," on page 234, International Correspondent William Langewiesche learned the secrets of the post-Snowden digital arms race from one of the world's elite anonymous hackers. "In that very small community of people like him, there is an acute paranoia—security fears permeate you every moment of your day," says Langewiesche. "It was striking after spending a week with him how that was beginning to affect even me."

EDWARD SOREL

In "The Ecstasy & the Agony," on page 240, an adaptation from Mary Astor's Purple Diary out next month, Contributing Artist Edward Sorel tells the story of a star-crossed actress—the subject of a notorious Hollywood sex scandal—who became his unlikely muse. "I still believe that if only I had met her before her first love, John Barrymore, I could have made her happy," Sorel says.

NICK BILTON"

Wrapping up his investigation of the scandal surrounding Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes's besieged blood-test company, Special Correspondent Nick Bilton took a quick drive to the headquarters itself, for "The Talented Ms. Holmes," on page 218. "I imagined there'd be snipers on the roofs, armed guards, but it was really desolate," Bilton says. "My mouth was agape when I saw only one young security guard, at the edge of the parking lot, taking what appeared to be a selhe."

MARK SEAL

For "Lapo Luxury," on page 248, Contributing Editor Mark Seal got in a Ferrari and traversed Milan, then went boating in Miami, both with Lapo Elkann, the scion of the Italian billionaire family of Fiat fame. He examined Elkann's newest venture: completely customized sports cars, boats, and planes. "He just lives in a Lapo universe," says Seal. "Everything there is heightened— color, energy, action—and almost everybody falls in love with Lapo and his lifestyle."

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DAVID KAMP

Contributing Editor David Kamp grew up 20 miles north of Freehold, New Jersey, the hometown of Bruce Springsteen, this month's cover star and the subject of Kamp's profile, "The Book of Bruce," on page 192. "It's alchemic, what he's done with central New Jersey," says Kamp. "He saw the same run-down, post-industrial towns that I did, but found poetry rather than dreariness. That takes a special kind of mind. He and David Chase [The Sopranos creator] really awakened my home-state pride."

ALISON JACKSON

Artist Alison Jackson uses look-alikes to explore celebrity culture. But for "The Art of the Donald," on page 212, Jackson struggled to find a willing look-alike for Trump. "No one was coming forward. Strange, when there were many Obamas, Blairs, and Thatchers." Her greatest challenge, naturally, was the hair: "It was very intricate work. We had to use glue." See more of Jackson's faux-Trump images in her forthcoming book, Private, out this Christmas.

MARK SEUGER

"We found a room in the post office on Eighth Avenue in Manhattan, built in 1913," says Contributing Photographer Mark Seliger, who shot the cast of the current Broadway revival of the 1928 classic The Front Page for "Broadway's Big Scoop," on page 232. "So it was sort of periodappropriate." The talent quickly made the most of the setting. "They knew their characters well and played into them more and more as we grouped them together."

SEBASTIAN KIM

Sebastian Kim shot Haley Bennett for the first time three years ago. "Since then, she's done so much with her career," Kim notes. "She's one of those starlets who are just going to explode." Kim was delighted to revisit Bennett, for "Haley's Comet," on page 206. "Haley was so easygoing but so sophisticated, and really excited to get into character. She's just easy to photograph."

REINALDO HERRERA, AMY FINE COLLINS, AND AIMEE BELLS

"To be best-dressed means having individuality, imagination, and discipline," says V.F. Special Correspondent Amy Fine Collins. Collins and her V.F. colleagues Graydon Carter, Aimee Bell, and Reinaldo Herrera are the keepers of the annual International Best-Dressed List, on page 126, which was established by fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert in 1940 and later bequeathed to the four V.F. editors. The 2016 List—a result of tallying thousands of ballots sent to fashion observers around the world—features a mix of venerable veterans and natty newcomers. Observes Herrera, "The List, as always, is a very interesting—and controversial—salad."

MICHAEL KINSLEY

In "The Fog of Peace," on page 180, Kinsley probes the history of the United States Institute of Peace, which was created in 1984 to "manage international conflict without violence." Kinsley notes that, like everything in the government, it even has a five-year plan. "It's a good number, five— conveniently guaranteed to put the plan beyond the next election. If the public knew that war could be ended in five years, they might ask that it be done in four. Or at least I would."

WAYNE MASER

"Lapo Elkann is the agent of change," says photographer Wayne Maser, a longtime friend of the Italian automobile heir turned entrepreneur profiled in "Lapo Luxury," on page 248. Maser explains that capturing Elkann's bespoke luxury vehicles enables us to understand Elkann's goals. "People in this world want to personalize the objects they buy to relate to them, and people like Lapo help to realize that change."