CONTRIBUTORS

LISA ROBINSON

For this month's cover story on Kendrick Lamar ("Kendrick Ascendant," page 42), Contributing Editor Lisa Robinson, who met with Lamar over a series of days in New York, says, "I was incredibly impressed with Kendrick's obsessive commitment to his music. He's a perfectionist, and he feels he hasn't done his best work yet." Robinson adds, "He takes responsibility as a leader not only for his hometown of Compton, but for the world of hip-hop in general." Also in this issue, Robinson, who is wilting a book about women in music, talks to Tank of Tank and the Bangas.

ERIC KONIGSBERG

"I find art-fraud stories inherently interesting," says writer Eric Konigsberg, who spoke to the man responsible for the furniture-forgery operation that conned Versailles as well as to the man who uncovered it ("The Chairmen," page 74). Konigsberg notes that the case had it all the history, the mechanics, and the most complex of primary characters, both of whom, he says, "seemed animated by their strengths but ruled by their weaknesses."

MELOTTENBERG

New York based stylist Mel Ottenberg, who will take over as creative director of the newly resurrected Interview' magazine this fall, opted for a Chrome Hearts necklace to style rapper Kendrick Lamar for this issue's cover, shot by Annie Leibovitz. "Meeting Kendrick and Annie on the same New York morning, and collaborating with them on these images, was a rare treat," Ottenberg says, calling Lamar a national treasure and adding, "Annie's work brought back memories of the dreams I had when I was a kid."

HARK WILLIAMS AND SARA HIRAKAWA

Husband-and-wife photographers Mark Williams and Sara Hirakawa, whose recent subjects range from Saoirse Ronan and Salma Hayek to Daniel Kaluuya and Jaden Smith, this month point their lens toward Australian actress Eliza Scanlen (page 27), who co-stars in the HBO series Sharp Objects. "It was Eliza's fu st big photo shoot, and we were impressed with her ability to turn into a muse in front of the camera," says Hirakawa. "We instantly connected on the kind of artful portrait we were trying to create together."

PAUL GOLDBERGER

For "George Lucas Strikes Back," on page 52, Contributing Editor Paul Goldberger charts Star Wars creator George Lucas's quest to found a museum for his art collection. Noting the influence that Lucas's wife, business executive Mellody Hobson, had on the project, Goldberger senses an architecture trend: spousal symbiosis. While helping to select an architect for the Barack Obama Presidential Center library, in Chicago, Goldberger observed that the former president and First Lady's decision-making "was really a partnership, as it has been with Lucas and Hobson."