The very best entrance pages of 2020
Magazines often look to the next steps. However, this year has been one where no one knew what was around the corner and it made us all stop, take stock, and think. It's a collective behavior that has manifested itself on magazine covers that have felt quieter in many ways, giving the images room to breathe, to speak for themselves.
Headlines and covers have largely addressed pressing issues ranging from the climate crisis to widespread systemic racism, while documenting the ever-changing situation associated with the coronavirus pandemic.
Covid-19 has of course affected the media in another way, namely the means of production. For magazines that rely on photo shoots to be commissioned, ingenuity and imagination were key to getting a problem over the finish line in the first place. Despite the challenges media publications around the world are facing, titles from Playgirl to Fact have ruined the idea that “Print is Dead” with this year's relaunch in this format.
By the end of 2020, we picked ten memorable front pages that epitomize a year no one will forget.
The January 2020 cover of Vogue Italia illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano
Vogue Italia: January 2020 edition
Vogue Italia started the year with an illustrated magazine that gave up the production of photo shoots for the entire issue in order to investigate how a magazine can be produced from the point of view of sustainability. Seven artists were hired to create each cover, which not only contradicted the visual status quo, but also made a beautiful homage to the early tradition of fashion illustration. The covers of magazines were mistakenly prophetic in the face of the deluge of illustrated and painted front pages that grew more widely this year during the pandemic – a format even Vogue Italia reverted to for the June issue, which featured front pages illustrated by children.
The cover of Good Weekend features scenes from Orangeville, NSW, photographed by Nick Moir
Good Weekend Magazine: Bushfires Photographic Special
In January 2020, Australia was rocked by a disastrous, record-breaking bushfire season that destroyed lives, homes and habitats in flames that consumed over 20% of Australian forests. The Sydney Morning Herald's Good Weekend magazine devoted a special edition to reportage photography about the events. The cover shows a firefighter running to safety, the view blocked, sparks falling like rain and shrouded in fiery red hues that many will recognize from the unsettling shots that were taken during the reporting – those that are already resurfacing when Australia grapples with the bushfire season all over again.
The cover of Guardian Weekly directed by Andrew Stocks
The Guardian Weekly: The New Isolation
When the coronavirus pandemic broke out around the world, the many changes in behavior offered no lack of inspiration for the art directors. A March special edition of the Guardian Weekly appeared when the UK first entered national lockdown. One sparse title set out the physical distancing guidelines that had come into play for many societies around the world. This approach proved popular with other titles, from St. Louis Magazine in Missouri to the Slovenian Lens Supplement, while Vogue Italia took the white space approach even further with a blank April cover.
Vanity Fair Italia cover by artist Francesco Vezzoli
Vanity Fair Italia: L’Italia Siamo Noi
Italy hit the headlines in April when it became one of the earliest Western European countries to take on the coronavirus crisis. The Italian edition of Vanity Fair confirmed this by commissioning a cover by artist Francesco Vezzoli, which depicted the nation's three-tone flag with a crack in the middle. The artwork was a tribute to 20th century painter, sculptor, and creator of spatiality, Lucio Fontana, and was auctioned to raise money for charities that support businesses.
The New York Times Magazine shows a cover by Philip Montgomery
The New York Times Magazine: Epicenter
By April, Covid-19 had become part of everyday language when the death toll skyrocketed around the world. However, many people had not seen what it looked like at the front in hospitals. Photographer Philip Montgomery gave an intimate glimpse by capturing these scenes for a New York Times Magazine assignment, documenting the chaos and trauma that doctors and health workers face on a daily basis. "It took me a second to get involved and really start taking pictures as my jaw was on the ground in many ways," said Montgomery of the experience in an interview with Gem Fletcher. "Reality had come about in relation to what was happening to our city and our New Yorkers."
David Hockney's iPad drawing on the cover of Telegraph Magazine, also pictured above
The Telegraph Magazine: A New Dawn
During the coronavirus crisis, David Hockney was busy creating iPad drawings from his home in France. The artist, who offered a slight relief during troubled times, was hired to create the front cover of Telegraph Magazine in late May, which depicts a peaceful Normandy sunset. Hockney's work was later picked up by UK Vogue for the Reset edition, where his 2006 oil painting of East Yorkshire was complemented by 13 other cover versions of landscapes created by artists such as Nick Knight, Nadine Ijewere and Tim Walker.
Kadir Nelsons Say Their Names on the cover of New Yorker
New Yorker: Say their names
After the US police murder of George Floyd and the ensuing outrage, trauma and reflection, New Yorker released a cover that contextualized his murder as part of a long history of violence against blacks in America. New Yorker Kadir Nelson painted the cover portrait of Floyd, which also includes portraits of victims in silhouette, whose stories can be uncovered in more detail online in the interactive cover story. Painted covers were also favored on other US titles, including Time Magazine's poignant America Must Change artwork by Charly Palmer and Amy Sherald's painting of Breonna Taylor for Vanity Fair.
Michaela Coel photographed by Ruth Ossai for the cover of New York magazine
New York Magazine: TV Issue
One of the biggest TV sensations this year was Michaela Coel's I May Destroy You, a gripping drama that dominates waters such as sexual assault, identity, race, sexuality, gender, love and friendship with extraordinary effects. Although anchored in East London life, the series, which aired on both the BBC and HBO, caught the attention of leading publications in the US. The boss among them was New York magazine, which Coel – the show's co-director, executive producer, writer and star – featured a picture by British-Nigerian photographer Ruth Ossai on the cover. While Coel also did the cover for the likes of the Wall Street Journal, Ossai's portrait for New York magazine has both a strength and a sensitivity that speaks to the complexity of the series she landed on the cover.
Misan Harrimans photo of Marcus Rashford and Adwoa Aboah on the cover of UK Vogue
British Vogue: Hope
For the first time in the history of Vogue, all 26 issues of the magazine from around the world coordinated the important September issue on a single topic: hope. In British Vogue, Edward Enninful reached out to activists to bring the topic to life, led by a title portrait of football player and staunch activist Marcus Rashford and model, activist and Gurls Talk founder Adwoa Aboah, who was photographed by Misan Harriman. The edition came with a special fold-out cover that features portraits of multi-generation changers in the UK and beyond, and is another powerful, offbeat cover from Enninful's Vogue.
The office and dignity cover of the Süddeutsche Zeitungsmagazin by Jonas Natterer, art direction by Thomas Kartsolis
Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin: Office and dignity
In a year marked by world-changing events at every turn, many of the usual political fiascoes have slipped from the headlines. But between the US presidential election and the confusing handling of Covid-19 in the US, Trump still managed to gain many inches and grace a handful of front pages. While satirical covers were a mainstay in US titles, the astute German Süddeutsche Zeitung magazine has reinterpreted Trumpian imagery for its presidential quiz special. With the Trump administration on its way out, the graphic cover could be one of the last examples of orange iconography we'll see for a while.