WHCD PARTY

Photos: Inside Mark Seliger’s Facebook Portrait Studio at the 2014 Vanity Fair White House Correspondents’ Party

For an event attended by many of the nation’s most powerful people, including the leader of the free world himself, the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner can be a bit . . . chaotic.

Things are somewhat less manic at the Vanity Fair/Bloomberg party, where many of the most prominent figures from the worlds of politics, media, and entertainment recover after watching President Obama show off his perfect comic timing. (If only his policies were as on target as his one-liners, are we right?! No? Sorry, moving on.)

This year, Vanity Fair and Facebook decided to mix things up by inviting guests to pose for photographer Mark Seliger in a custom-built portrait studio. The magic was in the unexpected combinations, as Joel McHale hammed it up with Governor Chris Christie, Questlove cozied up with Senior Advisor to the President of the United States Valerie Jarrett, and MSNBC host Ronan Farrow linked up with Scandal star Bellamy Young.

Seliger previously photographed everyone from Lady Gaga to Bill Murray at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party, as part of a special partnership with Instagram. Check out those images, and keep refreshing this page for new portraits from the Italian Ambassador’s residence, where this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner after-party took place.