At the end of the first UK lockdown in summer 2020, British Vogue published an issue dedicated to “The New Front Line – celebrating courage in the face of adversity”.

The cover of the July 2020 edition featured three separate portraits of three key workers based in London. One was Narguis Horsford, a train driver on the London Overground, another Rachel Millar, a community midwife in east London, and finally Anisa Omar, a supermarket worker in Kings Cross. The issue, produced during lockdown, featured interviews with many people on the front line of Covid-19, including the women on the cover.

The cover portraits were all photographed by Jamie Hawkesworth who traveled to each location by bicycle equipped only with a camera. This meant that each portrait was captured in natural light and without any additional styling or make-up. Each woman was photographed in the clothes they worked in. Vogue’s move to feature key workers on its cover was significant and speaks of the extraordinary change in minds and attitudes as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Vogue’s editor-in-chief, Edward Enninful, wrote: “I was cognisant that the doctors, nurses, and carers in the NHS were making huge sacrifices for the country in the midst of this devastating pandemic. But I was also thinking about all the other people out there – the bus and Tube drivers, the postman who delivered my letters, the people I saw stacking shelves in my local supermarket – who were putting their lives on the line for us, every day. I wanted to record this moment in history, to document the times that we are living in and the people who have kept this country going.”

Enninful is Vogue’s first Black editor-in-chief and since taking on the role in 2017 he has championed a more diverse approach to the commissioning of content and the selection of cover subjects. In September 2020, Enninful appeared on the cover of TIME magazine and gave an interview about how his upbringing in a multicultural London influenced his choices for the magazine: “I wanted to reflect what I saw here growing up, to show the world as this incredibly rich, cultured place. I wanted every woman to be able to find themselves in the magazine.

Documentary and fashion photographer Jamie Hawkesworth graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in 2009 with a BA in Photography. He was first introduced to photography while studying forensic science, taking pictures of reconstructed crime scenes. After less than a year, he changed his university pathway to pursue a photography degree. His images consistently explore the relationships between people and their surroundings and in doing so, comment on contemporary social issues.