Employees of the Month

DANNY GOLD

Danny has a tiny bearded face, and when he's hard at work editing a story or reviewing a documentary he sucks in wind like a clubbed baby seal. But the truth is, Danny can do pretty much whatever he wants. As a VICE News correspondent, he's logged time in super-fun destinations like Iraq, Gaza, and the Central African Republic. Last month he went to Liberia to cover the current Ebola crisis. When he got back, none of us wanted him around the office, so he quarantined himself in his Brooklyn apartment and didn't see anyone but delivery boys for 21 days. He says he finally got into Archer, though, and that show's chill as blade.

See DISEASE WITHOUT BORDERS

WHITNEY MALLETT

A month ago Whitney emailed us to say she was traveling to rural North Carolina to shop at Piggly Wiggly, gorge on Mexican sweets, and, most important, talk to kids who work in the tobacco fields there-and would we be interested in publishing her dispatch? She's written for n+1, the Paris Review, Filmmaker Magazine, and the New Inquiry and is a contributing editor to the Editorial Magazine. Sometimes she moonlights as a reluctant nightlife reporter and is prone to falling asleep at the club. Whitney also produces videos and documentaries, co-founded Térmé productions, and is currently finishing a film about the subculture of gospel mime..

See THE MEAN GREEN

PAUL STRAND

We're especially interested in Paul Strand right now because the Philadelphia Museum of Art just acquired 3,000 of his photographs and is holding the first comprehensive retrospective of his work in four decades. Because of this major purchase, combined with 600 photographs previously donated to the museum by Strand and his widow, generations to come will be able to see a massive collection of his work in one place. Other dead photographers who have entrusted work to their wives have not fared so well. Take Man Ray-the descendants of his widow are hoarding the majority of his photos in a car-repair garage on Long Island..

See LUZZARA, 1953

JAMES JEAN

James Jean was born in Taiwan, raised in New Jersey, and graduated from New York City's School of Visual Arts in 2001. His critically acclaimed illustration and fine-art career has led him to create covers for DC Comics, collaborate with Prada, and exhibit his work all over the world. Known for his lush imagery and virtuosic technique, he has amassed a large fan following, and yet he says he still struggles with everyday social tasks. His last name is translated from the Chinese word jian, which means "simple." James recently spoke with our art editor, Nick Gazin, about his life and sketchbooks, and let us publish a few beautiful illustrations.

See TABLE OF CONTENTS and JAMES JEANIUS

SABRINA SHANKMAN

Sabrina Shankman is a writer and multimedia producer with the environmental journalism nonprofit InsideClimate News. Before that, she helped produce documentaries for the PBS show Frontline and wrote for ProPublica and the Associated Press. Sabrina grew up in Maine, so it's no surprise that her favorite store is L. L. Bean and that she's tough and hates big-city bullshit, like a salty-faced lobsterman. When we sent her to the frigid limits of Northern Canada to report a story about the plight of the polar bear and a man who was mauled by one, she was one of the only members of our crew who didn't vomit up her lunch on the boat ride.

See POLAR BEAR MAN

RORY TOLAN

Rory copy-edits this entire magazine by himself. We send him lines like "I ate a apples pie's slice and it tastes god" and he polishes them into lines like "I ate a slice of apple pie, and it tasted good." He's such a pro that the other departments at VICE Media ask him to fix their nonsense copy all the time, and whatever it is-voice-over script, press release, PowerPoint-Rory will start to work on it, because he's a gentleman. But editing their stuff is not part of his job, so someone on the magazine staff will have to step in and fend off the illiterate hordes. Get your own copy editor, people. Rory's ours, and he's fucking busy right now and forever.

Illustrations by Geffen Refaeli