The Essence magazine in a wake of a new era is putting a mile stone to celebrate the 50thAnniversary of the ESSENCE brand
While halfway through their production, they unexpectedly finds themselves in the middle of a worldwide crisis, which prompts an indefinite work-from-home mandate.
Well, like Naomi Campbell, you rise to the occasion like never before—and make history.
“It was a very special honor and unusual experience for me to be able to shoot and style my own cover for ESSENCE’s 50th anniversary issue,” Campbell says. “While it was a sad reminder for me of all the people in media and production who are not able to work due to the coronavirus, it also brought me hope and encouragement to know that our people and our infrastructures are resilient.”
Against all odds these women chose to improvise working as a team.
For ESSENCE Chief Content & Creative Officer MoAna Luu “Bringing this issue to life in the midst of a global pandemic represents everything that Black women are and illustrates how we will continue to show up for them in the best and worst of times, as we have done for the past five decades,” she said. “We are resilient and we wanted to show that resilience. The same resilience that motivated our team to make this cover happen. The same resilience that resulted in Naomi and I relying on FaceTime to talk through how this shoot would be brought to life because I couldn’t be there with her in person. The same resilience that allowed us to close this issue while working entirely remote for the first time in our brand’s history.”
Impressively, ESSENSE Deputy Editor Allison McGevna was home navigating new motherhood while simultaneously working.
“It was a challenge to have our major shoots canceled, all showrooms closed and not be able to physically produce such a historic issue in the traditional sense,” McGevna said. “We spent the weeks leading up in a sea of shoots and late nights editing copy for the biggest issue in our history. But just a few days before our shoot with Naomi, the world as we knew it, quite literally, stopped. Everything closed down and people in the office and our communities started getting sick as COVID-19 began to wreak havoc around the world. But we knew we had a responsibility to our audience, maybe more than ever, to inform her and bring her joy. So, we put our heads together.
Nigerian Lola Ogunnaike, an ESSENCE alum was also a part of the success.
Connecting her with TV host and writer, Lola, who’s presently in Nigeria, became a juggling act of time zones and WhatsApp chats. Lola, conducted the interview.
“This cover is the epitome of a full circle moment for me. My very first internship was at ESSENCE Magazine,” she said. “I was a junior in college with dreams of making it big as a writer in New York City and landing at ESSENCE felt as if I’d won the publishing world lottery. All these years later, I feel deeply honored to have penned this historical cover. Many models have come and gone. Many magazines too,” said Lola.
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