SAM COMEN PHOTOGRAPHY
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The Longest Shift



Tragedy tempered the moments in which these photographs and motion portraits were made. In December 2020 and January 2021, as the country neared the morbid marker of one year under the Covid-19 pandemic, infections and deaths in Los Angeles County had reached a dramatic peak.

It was in this context that Sam Comen traveled throughout Los Angeles to document workers – deemed “essential” – who were thrust to the front lines and asked to keep on the job while the rest of society sheltered at home.

This project, focusing largely on Black and Latinx workers, often in jobs that expose striking societal inequities, examines the economic and social forces that shape our communities, their structures laid bare by a deadly pandemic.

Through Comen’s reverent portrayals of these workers’ in image and text, these works celebrate the subjects’ lives, contributions, and resilience. The exhibition invites the viewer to reflect on the meaning of work in our society and the value of the labor we all rely on, in hopes of spurring more equitable conditions in a post-pandemic world.

 
 

THE LONGEST SHIFT

Tragedy tempered the moments in which these photographs and motion portraits were made. In December 2020 and January 2021, as the country neared the morbid marker of one year under the Covid-19 pandemic, infections and deaths in Los Angeles County had reached a dramatic peak.  

It was in this context that photographer Sam Comen traveled throughout Los Angeles to document workers – deemed “essential” – who were thrust to the front lines and asked to keep on the job while the rest of society sheltered at home.

This body of work, focusing largely on Black and Latinx workers, often in jobs that expose striking societal inequities, examines the economic and social forces that shape our communities, their structures laid bare by a deadly pandemic.

Through Comen’s reverent portrayals of these workers’ in image and text, these works celebrate the subjects’ lives, contributions, and resilience. The project invites the viewer to reflect on the meaning of work in our society and the value of the labor we all rely on, in hopes of spurring more equitable conditions in a post-pandemic world.

This project was a partnership between more than 20 labor unions, foundations, and nonprofits focused on supporting people at work. 
It was generously supported by The James Irvine Foundation, The California Endowment, and the California Community Foundation.

This is just a small glimpse of the larger project. Please click below to see it all:

 
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