Andrew Rice
Johannesburg, South Africa
In profiling rising political leader Jacob Zuma for “Spoils of Prosperity,” Andrew Rice found that even today South Africa is a nation extraordinarily divided. “Apartheid is over and the leaders are black, but out in the vast townships, the quality of life hasn’t improved significantly,” Rice says. “Continuing poverty, in turn, creates a horrific crime problem.” Rice’s new book, The Teeth May Smile but the Heart Does Not Forget: Murder and Memory in Uganda, comes out in May.

Emily Shur
Los Angeles
When photographing MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe, Emily Shur sought to create an image reminiscent of those that appear on the social-networking site. “We used the photo booth to illustrate the sort of photography that people use on MySpace—self-made and spontaneous,” says Shur, who photographed several Hollywood toddlers for the November 2008 Cameo about their screen earnings.

Peter Waldman
Irving, Texas
When contributing editor Peter Waldman set out to determine how much Exxon Mobil had actually invested in alternative energy for “Exxon vs. Obama," he was struck by the amount of spin he had to wade through. “Exxon is waging a lavish public-relations campaign to reposition itself as an environmentally sensitive firm, a move that has succeeded in obscuring its intransigence on fossil fuels,” Waldman says. “My challenge was to look behind the ad copy.”

Peter Yang
New Haven, Connecticut
Shooting images for “Cash Me If You Can," photographer Peter Yang was presented with an unusual problem: trying to keep a dog’s mouth closed. “Bulldogs get hot easily, and when they’re hot, they pant,” says Yang. “We had all sorts of tricks to keep the mouths closed, like fans and ice for the dogs to lick.” Yang is a regular contributor to Wired, ESPN the Magazine, and Rolling Stone.

Ji Lee
New York
Designer Ji Lee modeled his illustration for this month’s Finance column, “The Crash-Test Solution," on safety testing for cars. Lee crumpled a $20 bill into various positions to simulate the effects of a stress test. “The rest of the time was spent merging the images to make it look real,” he says. Lee designed the fallen Wall Street bull for the cover of Condé Nast Portfolio’s December/January issue.

Daniel Golden
New Haven, Connecticut
As university endowments plummet, will the reputation of Yale’s influential chief investment officer, David Swensen, emerge unscathed? In “Cash Me If You Can," senior editor Daniel Golden talks to Swensen, whose investments in private equity and hedge funds have served as a model for other institutions. “He’s a little like Coca-Cola,” Golden says. “He wrote about his success, but part of his recipe is still secret. You can’t do as well as he did just by reading his book.”