Calm is an elusive emotion. It seems like the world is set up to stress us out – and for good reason. When we’re stressed we act impulsively, and not always in our best interest. That can mean buying products we don’t need or indulging when we normally wouldn’t. That’s for most of us. But some of us have to act valiantly under pressure, under stress. For those people, they have to find a calm in any situation where they can work from a place of power. That’s the topic of this month’s cover story of The Observer Magazine, and the publication invited Kyle Bean to bring the concept to life in a single image. Of course, Kyle went above and beyond. Teaming up with London-based photographer Sara Morris, Kyle invested in an inventive concept that he was able to explore in a series of different executions. Remembering the old steady hand buzzer games where the player is meant to navigate a metal wand over a fixed pathway or risk a light and buzzer, Kyle created the same game but used the pathway as a way to communicate. In the first incarnation, Kyle spelled out “CALM” to be emblazoned across the front of the magazine. He kept it going by also engaging the light, and with those two images was able to create a GIF that shows the light blinking as if there were failure. A second version of the concept uses the metal path to illustrate an EKG’s reading of the human heart. Both versions of Kyle and Morris’ creation play on what it means to stay calm under pressure, even when the challenge is the calm. These moments are indescribably crucial: Sully Sullenberger landing US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River or South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster ordering evacuation ahead of a hurricane. These choices can often involve the lives of thousands and depend upon acting with a clear head. Finding calm under immense stress is a skill and a tool, and one that you never know you may need until everything is on the line. Does that stress you out?

Rideshare apps have changed how accessible travel is to the average rider. We no longer have to scour the streets for available cabs or the yellow pages for drivers. Instead, our next trip is at the tip of our fingers when we log into our phones. But once you hail a ride: how do you find the car that’s come to pick you up? Lyft has solved that with Lyft Amp, a window display in the driver’s car set to alert the passenger they’re picking up. The brand most recently contracted Serial Cut to help them promote the new service and the results are glowing. Most riders have to read practically every license plate that drives by them when searching for their ride, but the Lyft Amp emits a colored light to make it easier. Serial Cut jumped on that feature and showed it off without even picturing the product in the trio of ads. Instead, Serial Cut created a series of three dimensional CGI cityscapes, in locations familiar to rider shares. There’s one at the airport, another in a skyscraper downtown district, and a third in a more residential neighborhood. Each cityscape shows a glow coming from the street showing a Lyft driver coming to pick up their passenger. Each ad is angled to the massive fleet that works with Lyft to turn their cars into moneymakers, creating a sense of industry and self-reliance, while also tugging on the pride that comes with personal responsibility. By hiding the car in each composition, Serial Cut allows the audience to imagine themselves as the driver, picking up their new passenger, creating a relationship with a customer and engaging self-reliant industry – all while lighting up someone’s trip to their next adventure.

Jonah Hills’ big break came more than 20 years ago when he starred in Superbad alongside Michael Cera and Christopher Mintz-Plasse. He continued to prove himself a formidable actor over the coming years, but his original pursuit was always to be on the other side of the camera. This year we’ll finally see Jonah Hill in the form he always imagined for himself, the role of Director. This week’s New Yorker features a cover story about the writer turned actor turned director with photographs by Marco Grob. Marco offers two portraits of Hill, the cover is a complex black and white while the inner photographs is a much more straightforward color image. On the cover, Marco engaged every bit of light mastery, employing a collection of sources that cover together on Hill’s face, freezing him into a dynamic representation that is scarcely offered in traditional portraiture. The composition is exacting with an entire light meant just to highlight his left eye, creating a look that is striking. It pulls Hill out of the expected trope of a youthful funny man into the aesthetics typically reserved for Orson Wells and Alfred Hitchcock. A duotone blur at the edges of red and blue add to the otherworldly quality of the image.  On the inside of the magazine, Marco offers a more convention photograph of Hill, one dressed in the clothes he wore to the companion interview, once that invites us to the table to sit with him and hear him and his story. It’s not the same story that we’ll see in Hill’s upcoming mid90s, nor is it the story whose lines he’s spoken for the last two decades. It’s his story, one that he’s still writing but we’re welcome to hear.

When brands come to photographers it’s for one of two reasons: either the photographer fits exactly with the brand’s established aesthetic or they want to explore something new. The Selby’s latest campaign with Polo Ralph Lauren is in the latter camp, an opportunity to play in the middle ground between the brand’s heritage and Todd’s techniques. And the results are a lot of fun. “Polo Ralph Lauren has such a strong singular image around what they do and then I have a strong point of view about what I do, and they have such a clean aesthetic and I’m a maximalist, but we connect on the positivity,” Todd explains. “Everything I do is an endorsement of the people that I photograph. I find these amazing people and share them with the world. And I think that Polo really celebrates people and personal style, and I think that celebration of American style was the way that we connected.” The shoot was an exposition of families preparing to go back to school. We think of Polo Ralph Lauren as an exclusive fashion brand, but this was a great opportunity to present a more accessible identity. “It's nice that Polo Ralph Lauren is a fashion brand but it’s also embracing people,” says Todd. “They’re not preaching exclusivity or exclusion, so it’s very inclusive which is very American and also very positive. I really appreciate that.” Todd’s work has always been an expression of authenticity and an invitation into the lives of his subjects, and they were able to do that while still showing off the best from what Polo Ralph Lauren has to offer. “It was really cool,” Todd says. “They were really open with me doing my thing. Once we found these great families and got them in the clothes, it was very them but it’s also very me. So, it was kind of one of those ideal situations.”

In the deluge of news that we all face in this era, some critical stories go underreported, not least of which is our global pollution crisis. We hear a lot about greenhouse gasses, but plastic landfills are overwhelming our ecosystems and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is now twice the size of Texas (or about three times the size of France). Some scientists and engineers are on the case, but little will be done until the population calls for it, and the population must be educated. The New York Times is taking that responsibility personally, and they made plastic pollution the cover story for the latest issue of The New York Times For Kids with a massive illustration by Andrew Rae. “Attack of the Plastic!” the cover proclaims, under Andrew’s threatening, four-armed, wide-mouthed monster made from a pile of plastic waste. The polymer kaiju is threatening enough that it’s devouring the E off the iconic title of the paper, reminding us that no one is safe or out of reach. But Andrew’s contribution didn’t end at the cover. The rest of the insert is filled with kid-friendly characters made from assorted plastic detritus. A toy frog head walks on a series of computer cables, while a rubber duck is chauffeured on a chariot made from a plastic pail and toothbrushes. A pill bottle is lashed to a ketchup bottle by a USB cord, forming a Frankenstein-esque body under a smiling (but spookily apathetic) bear’s head. Andrew’s illustration is deeply detailed, filled with shopping bags and instruments, bottles for shampoo, and conditional, and creams. There are ice trays and lawn chairs, dolls and cassette tapes, barrels and sleds. And behind every piece of a trash is a human hand that put it there. That’s the final message from this issue of The New York Times For Kids: this is our problem that can only be solved by our solutions. Andrew shows us the Goliath, it’s now up to us to take the mantle of David and defeat the monster of our own making.

Your wedding is no time to play it safe and this summer Harper’s Bazaar proved the point highlighting 14 surprising wedding dresses choices they picked for beach weddings. The story, photographed in Turks and Caicos, features makeup by Victor Henao whose balance of light and texture make the models look as natural as they do elegant. His masterful eye proves you don’t have to get gussied up to match the high fashion choices on the momentous day. With photography by Christopher Ferguson and styling by Carrie Goldberg, Victor and the creative team were able to create captivating images that feel luxurious without being distracted by fashion. Each image is a holistic composition where every element suffuses into a balanced aesthetic. Victor's light touch expresses energy and grace in a way that feels supremely authentic.