One year after the first stay-at-home order of the pandemic, workers who never imagined they would be on the front lines are still on the job.
Portraiture and reporting by Sam Comen.
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 more than 20 labor unions, foundations, and nonprofits focused on supporting people at work collaborated with photographer Sam Comen 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. You’re invited to reflect on the meaning of work in our society and the value of the labor we all rely on. Will this crisis spur more equitable conditions in a post-pandemic world?
Uriel Rivera Cortez
Former Amazon Warehouse Worker
Photographed outside the massive fulfillment center where 6,000 people are employed.
“I would like people to put themselves in our shoes and reflect on what it is like to work in a warehouse like this one. I would like all the customers, everyone who buys at Amazon, to care at least a little for the employees. If the people cared a little about essential workers, they would take less advantage of us, and it would be a lot safer for us to go to work and continue to work for the company.”
Carlos Arevalo, Jason Calixto, Esbeida Refugio, and Ray Miller.
Custodial Staff, LA County + USC Hospital
The custodians responsible for cleaning and decontaminating LA County + USC Hospital understand that their work is of critical importance. Jason Calixto (second from left) said, “The burden falls on us to protect not only staff, but society, our community, and the public. We have to do everything that we can to protect everybody that comes into the hospital, those that visit the hospital, ourselves, and our families as well.”
For Carlos Arevalo (left), remembered how it felt when Los Angeles was at the highest level of contagion and the hospital was almost full. “I saw the patients face-to-face. I saw some I thought were about to pass, but thank God they started getting better, and they made a full recovery and were able to go back home.”
To keep her two-year-old son safe, Esbeida Refugio (third from left) leaves him with a babysitter during the week, while she’s working. She said, “That's the hardest thing. It’s kind of heartbreaking leaving my son, but I’m really scared that he’s gonna get exposed.”
Jasmine Dashtizad and Lindsey Clough
Film & TV Freelance Makeup Artist, Film & TV Freelance Wardrobe Stylist
Jasmine Dashtizad (left) and Lindsey Clough (right) both lost work when the film and TV industry shut down early in the pandemic. Dashtizad shared, “I come from an immigrant family. I’ve been working since I was 16 years old. I had never not worked, so this was the first time that through no doing of my own, I was unemployed. I remember sitting at my laptop, filling in the unemployment form, and I actually started to cry, because there was this shame I had never experienced before.”
When the city allowed production to open up again, they put guidelines in place, but each company determined its own procedures. Clough recalled, “I felt, especially in those early months, that it was up to us as the workers to really stand up for ourselves and set boundaries and decide what was safest and what worked best for us. This is an extraordinary period in our history in which we have a chance to say, “No, this is not the right way to be working.”
These portraits and first-person stories bring us closer than six feet to the Los Angelenos who work the front lines of the pandemic. Some are first responders, others suddenly faced deadly risk on the job. Largely Black and Latinx, often in jobs that expose striking inequities, these workers labor so that others can shelter at home while they remain on the longest shift.
Vince Mena, Dale Smith, Kristina “Kady” Kepner, and Brandon Terrazas
City of Los Angeles Fire Department Firefighters, Station 3 in Downtown Los Angeles
Vince Mena (left) has been with the Los Angeles Fire Department for 34 and a half years, but he never imagined doing this work in a pandemic. He said, “We all have to be a little bit understanding, have some compassion, and get through this together, because we are all in it together. It’s not just a certain group or certain people; it’s everybody in the world, from every walk of life.”
Captain Dale Smith (second from left) said, “We’ve had a couple of healthy firefighters on the job in LA City that have passed from COVID. All the contact that we have within the community definitely raises our exposure levels, which has been pretty tough. We can take all these precautionary measures, but we’re not immune to this. It will affect us just like it will anybody else.”
Because Los Angeles County has a public health
department, but the City of Los Angeles does not, the mayor asked the fire department to assist with the development of COVID testing sites. Kady Kepner (second from right), Assistant Chief, oversaw that initiative. She shared, “It has definitely been a challenge for all of us, as it has for everyone. We’ve had to implement new protocols, policies, and a whole bunch of new and innovative ways to continue to be able to do our job and provide exceptional customer service to the communities that we serve.”
Luis Enrique Moreno
Baker, Super A Foods grocery store
“It feels good when they call us “essential workers,” but at the same time, people don’t really appreciate what we do. It has really been a very difficult year for me personally. I got COVID, and I was admitted to the hospital. You do not know if you are going to make it or not. I was out of work for the two weeks they give you, and after that, I was out for two months.”
Josephine Yadegar, Lisa Quon Heinsen, and Lynn Pratt
Teachers, Los Angeles Unified School District
Photographed in the empty San Pascual STEAM Magnet Elementary School
LAUSD schools have been virtual only since Monday, March 16, 2020. When the district made the transition to online learning, it was challenging for the teachers—and their students. Lisa Quon Heinsen (center) has been teaching for more than 20 years. She said, “There have been numerous problems, from inadequate Wi-Fi access to low quality devices that are not able to access the platforms that we use. And sometimes there’s the social emotional aspect where kids just feel so alone. That’s the hardest part.”
Josephine Yadegar (left), a teacher for 34 years, reminded parents, “I’m not in the physical building, but I’m still with your kids, I still care about them, I still want them to do well, I still want to give them the best that I can every day. The kids are doing the best that they can do in the circumstances that they’ve been given.”
Lynn Pratt (right) has been teaching for 22 years and is looking forward to returning to in-person teaching. She said, “I have heard criticism about teachers not wanting to come back to work or not doing their job. I've never seen my colleagues work as hard as they’re working now, at least 10, 12 hour days. And we still have to balance our personal lives and our families and everything else.”
Covid-19 forces us to look at who and what sustains society
Rick Nils
Lyft Driver & Student
Photographed at home
“Some passengers make it difficult for the drivers, because they don’t want to put on their masks. And if you ask them to put on their masks, they get a bit mad or angry. That puts you at risk of them doing something to you or to your car—kicking you or spitting on you.”
Fanny Ortiz and daughter Maia, age 14
Home Healthcare Worker
“The work we do is essential, and it’s always been essential. Prior to the pandemic, it was never recognized. Every time we renew our contract, we have to fight and advocate to get a raise. We shouldn’t have to, because someone needs to do this work. If I was a fierce advocate before, I’m even more fierce now. I’m gonna do what I have to do to make sure that we survive.
The working class people, we always hustle, we’re always doing what we have to do for our families. COVID has highlighted the inequities that communities of people of color have suffered historically.”
Mauricio Villanueva
Home Healthcare Worker
Photographed while at work in his client’s home
“I have to take care of myself, because I know if I get sick or something, I’m gonna lose my job. It’s about trust. If I get COVID and get sick, I understand—I’m 100% realistic with this—that I’m going to lose the job, because even if I recover and I come back, that trust is not going to be there anymore.”
Maggie Gonzalez
Service Deli Chef, Super A Foods grocery store
“The support of my family has been really helpful, despite our experiences with the virus. Working together to get through this and to support each other has helped us unite as a family. For example, those who work—those of us who are fortunate enough to still have our jobs—support those who don’t. We help each other out.
I have had to tell customers to put on a mask, and they were rude to me. They said, “Why are you upset, if I am healthier than you?” It does not matter the race—they are all equally inconsiderate when they want to be inconsiderate, when they have not had to live with it.”
Jason Gibson
Biomedical Waste Technician, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
“I’ve seen a lot, I mean, this place was crazy. I just got my first vaccination last Friday. My mother didn’t want me to take it, but I have to protect myself, because my stepfather died of cancer last year. He collapsed and died in my arms. And then my nephew just lost his father. He has no parents, so death has been in our family left and right.”
By focusing on the people behind the face masks, this document of resilience aims to forge an empathetic human connection to those forced to the frontlines by COVID-19.
Alvaro Altamirano
Port of Los Angeles Trucker
“We are partially responsible for moving the economy, because we move the products that come from other countries and bring them to the supermarkets. We are risking our health, our lives even, but at the same time, we are helping a lot of people. You feel like you are making a contribution to the community, to the country.
Seeing that there were shortages of toilet paper, sugar, food, and things like that, and knowing that we are the vehicle that can reach those supermarkets and restock what is missing; that was a great motivation.”
Armando Romero Rodriguez
Forklift Operator, Overhill Farms
“What I want people to know is that we’re endangering our families to come here and produce food for them to get from the market. There’s always that fear of carrying the virus home with us. But it’s something that needs to be done.”
Brittney Mull, Amanda Dupre, Joshua Beverly, Ai-Xin Chen, and Filmon Mehanzel
Resident Physicians, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
When the residents at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center chose careers in medicine, they never imagined facing a pandemic as part of their training. Brittany Mull (left) said, “The hardest part for me was probably the summertime, when I realized that the pandemic wasn’t going to be over anytime soon. I was working in the ICU at Cityside for rotation. I hadn’t seen my daughter for maybe five days, and my sleep schedule was terrible, and I had to commute back and forth to work. I was really unhappy. At that point, I questioned myself and questioned my choices about going into medicine. I was burnt out.”
Ai-Xin Chen (second from right) moved to California from New York and experienced infection peaks on both coasts. She said, “It’s tough seeing so many people die alone in the hospital. It worries me, because I feel like it’s kind of dehumanizing to the providers, because I don’t know what emotions I'm supposed to be having.”
“I think a lot of us had experiences where we’d wake up feeling short of breath, thinking that we might have caught it. But it was just anxiety about catching it and not knowing what it would do to us,” recalled Joshua Hull (center).
Amanda Dupre (second from left) noted that COVID-19 has disproportionately affected people of color. “I’ve had family members who actually come to this hospital. I’ve had family members that passed from COVID as well, so it definitely hit home.”
Her colleague Filmon Mehanzel (right) said, “I appreciate that I was able to even be part of this. I think I’ll be telling my kids, and my grandkids later in the future, that I was part of something that was epic, and how we responded to it.”
Kristina “Kady” Kepner
LAFD Assistant Chief
Photographed at Station 3 in downtown Los Angeles
“Normally, 85% to 90% of our calls are EMS. The most rewarding part is being able to respond to people, whether they have symptoms of COVID, or they’re injured or sick, and hopefully making a positive impact in their lives. People have gotten really, really sick and are so very thankful for the job that we’re able to do.
When the pandemic initially started, we were tasked with developing COVID testing sites in Los Angeles City. We’ve had to implement new protocols, policies, and a whole bunch of new and innovative ways to continue to be able to do our job and provide exceptional customer service to the communities that we serve.”
Laura Pozos
McDonalds Worker
“We are considered essential workers because of the pandemic, but I think that we have always—our whole lives—been essential people. We are immigrants, and we come to perform a job, wherever they put us, to support our families. Crossing the borders, we face many obstacles, but at the end of the day, we come to work, and to work wherever they place us, doing whatever it is.”
Carla Blieden, Allison Bonpin, Tracy Lam, and Giddeon Oppong
COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic Staff, LA County + USC Hospital
Allison Bonpin (second from left) is a pharmacist who prepares COVID-19 vaccines for distribution at the LA County + USC Hospital vaccine clinic. She said, “It feels fulfilling that I’m helping our community. Every person that we get here, we get vaccinated. I feel like there’s hope to end this pandemic.”
“I’ve had people cry tears of just relief as I give them a shot. There’s so much going on when you come in to get your vaccine. Everyone’s still socially distanced, everyone’s six feet apart, but people come in who have not been in a space that has that many people in it in a year. It’s been really rewarding. It feels like you’re giving a gift to somebody,” said Carla Blieden (left), a clinical pharmacist who also teaches at the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy.
Some of the clinic’s patients take the pandemic more seriously than others. Gideon Oppong (right), LVN, said, “We get a lot of people that don’t fully understand what’s going on. They come to us, and they’re like, ‘So what’s going on, is it a real vaccine? Is it a microchip? What is it, what am I getting?’ So then, as a nurse, I have to be able to calm them down, and let them understand that it’s a vaccine, and it’s something that we’re pushing for the community to be able to control what’s going on.”
Kevin Martinez and Charlie Garcia
Security, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
Kevin Martinez and Charlie Garcia work security at the entrance to the emergency department at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where they face new challenges every day. Charlie Garcia (right) explained, “I’ve seen patients coming in coughing. I’ve seen patients coming in all wrapped up and wheezing and stuff like that. It’s really tough. Some people coming in with COVID need a wheelchair, or they need assistance. We try to help them out as much as we can.”
Kevin Martinez (left) takes pride in being an essential worker, but he acknowledged that the job takes an emotional toll. “It’s sad to say, but sometimes we have to send visitors away from seeing their loved ones just to prevent them from being exposed to the virus. When I have to be the one to prevent them from coming in, I look like the bad guy, but I'm just preventing the spread from continuing. It hurts deep down, but there's nothing we can do. These are not our rules. They are the county’s rules.”
Vince Mena
City of Los Angeles Fire Department Firefighter
“We’re kind of caught in the middle of the political part of this entire thing. We’re wearing a badge, so we could be looked at negatively, because we represent government. We are human, just like anybody else, you know? We’re trying to do our best to help people, and sometimes that’s not recognized.”
When we devalue work that we depend on we turn a crisis into disaster
Hector Robles, Hyun Joo Kim, Kim Chow, Maria Alviso, Lance Goosby, and Nicole Luckie
USPS Letter Carriers
Photographed at Los Angeles’ Foy Station
For letter carriers, the pandemic has meant more mail, more parcels, and more precautions. Hyun Joo Kim (second from left) explained, “I have to wear the mask and wear the gloves, even on a hot day. Physically, it is a little hard, but it’s okay. We have to do it.”
Nicole Luckie (right) said, “When you’re out on the street, you have some customers that will come up to you, and they don’t have a mask on, and then they get mad at you when you don’t want to talk to them or take their mail from them. I’m like, ‘Okay, wait a minute, my son has chronic asthma, my mother has kidney failure, and my sister has lupus, so I can’t afford to bring anything home.’”
Amado Montejo
Port of Los Angeles Trucker
“I lost my brother in Guatemala to COVID on January 6. I kept working because, you know, life goes on, and you have to keep going, although you are not 100% mentally. I thought about going to Guatemala. I wasn’t able to, because I would have to quarantine myself when I arrived in Guatemala, so why was I even going? And then when I returned, I would have to quarantine again. So, no.”
Rebecca Melchor, Sandra Ceja, and Karina Franco
Surgical Technologist and RNs, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
Rebecca Melchor (left) is a surgical technologist in the Labor and Delivery Operating Room at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where some of the pregnant patients have tested positive for COVID. She said, “I was part of the first crash COVID C-section that we had. It was an emergency C-section, life and death. Sometimes you feel uneasy. I mean, it’s something you feel like you have to do, though. Nobody else is going to do it.”
Sandra Ceja (center), a Labor and Delivery nurse, worries about her family at home, but also empathizes with her patients. She said, “You try to understand what they’re going through. You do your best to take care of them and be kind, and do the best that you can with your fear.”
Karina Franco (right), has been a nurse for five years and has worked in L&D for one year. Despite the pandemic, she said, “It’s been a good experience overall. I’ve learned so much. It makes me feel proud of myself for trying this specialty, which I really enjoy, and being able to help moms having their babies, especially during this pandemic.”
Vince Mena, Dale Smith, Kristina “Kady” Kepner, and Brandon Terrazas
City of Los Angeles Fire Department Firefighters, Station 3 in Downtown Los Angeles
Vince Mena (left) has been with the Los Angeles Fire Department for 34 and a half years, but he never imagined doing this work in a pandemic. He said, “We all have to be a little bit understanding, have some compassion, and get through this together, because we are all in it together. It’s not just a certain group or certain people; it’s everybody in the world, from every walk of life.”
Captain Dale Smith (second from left) said, “We’ve had a couple of healthy firefighters on the job in LA City that have passed from COVID. All the contact that we have within the community definitely raises our exposure levels, which has been pretty tough. We can take all these precautionary measures, but we’re not immune to this. It will affect us just like it will anybody else.”
Because Los Angeles County has a public health department, but the
City of Los Angeles does not, the mayor asked the fire department to assist with the development of COVID testing sites. Kady Kepner (second from right), Assistant Chief, oversaw that initiative. She shared, “It has definitely been a challenge for all of us, as it has for everyone. We’ve had to implement new protocols, policies, and a whole bunch of new and innovative ways to continue to be able to do our job and provide exceptional customer service to the communities that we serve.”
This project was made possible by the UFCW 770, with the generous support of The James Irvine Foundation, The California Endowment, and The California Community Foundation.
Daisy Flores
Stocker and Cashier, Super A Foods grocery store
“When there were limits on waters, I told a customer, “The limit is only two.” The guy started yelling at me, calling me racist, but yet, we’re both Latinos. He just kept yelling at me, so everyone was looking at me, and I got red and I cried, and then another guy came and helped me out. That means a lot, but then I still deal with this every day. I’m very sensitive, and it’s hard.
They say that all grocery people are heroes and all that. Then we should get treated as heroes, you know?
With my mom being sick, if I feel anything, I panic so fast. I am an over-thinker. It’s just scary, like, you don’t know if it’s the flu or if it’s COVID.”
Carolyn Thomas
Health Facility Evaluating Nurse, LA County Department of Public Health
Photographed outside a skilled nursing facility where she’s investigated complaints
“You may not be worried about it, but the other person, they want to live and they have the right to live. We should all give each other that right. COVID has been a living hell. It has ripped through families. It has ripped through communities, nursing homes, schools. I mean, it is the worst. It has been the worst.”
Alberto Gomez
Candy & Toy Vendor
Photographed at Wilshire Blvd and Vermont Ave, on his daily route
“Sometimes there are ladies who can’t afford to buy things for their children, so I cut them a deal. I know it seems like I’m losing, but I don’t lose: I know I win. God is looking at every one of my actions from above.”
What are the forces that sustain us? Who does the labor that keeps us alive?
Philip Quansah
Film & TV Production Truck Driver
“For someone that doesn’t know Hollywood, it could be a little puzzling, like, “We’re not saving lives, so why are we essential workers?” My thoughts are: Content that is put out on the internet, through streaming, through TV, through network stations, gives people hope. People have lost family members, people have gotten the virus, people have lost their jobs—there’s a lot of peril going on. So content, movies, commercials, things that can help people kind of get away, to me, it’s essential.”
Russell Griffith, Mario A. Gonzalez, Marie Geelan, Vanessa Johnson, and Janae Torrez
LA County Public Defenders, Compton Superior Court
“We’re in here every day. I think there’s a misconception that courts have been shut down or that courts are not in place, or that we’ve been on a break. But we’ve been in here since the beginning. I contracted COVID in June from a client,” said Janae Torrez (right).
Even when precautions are taken, the likelihood of exposure is high. Russell Griffith (left) explained, “The clients are living in a jail, which is a hotbed for the disease, and a lot of them are mentally ill and don’t necessarily have the best habits to begin with. And it’s very hard for people to keep their mask up, even if they want to, when they’re handcuffed.”
Mario A. Gonzalez (second from left) said, “At the beginning of the pandemic, the DAs agreed to dismiss certain cases, low-level misdemeanors, that are not violent and aren’t sexual in nature. But as the pandemic has progressed, the caseload has increased significantly, which has been stressful on us.”
During a recent case, Vanessa Johnson (second from right) thought a witness was lying, but the judge wasn’t listening to her objections. She recalled, “The Spanish interpreter asked me afterwards, ‘Did you notice the witness took his mask off?’ I was like, ‘Are you serious?’ I was so focused on the work part that I wasn’t even looking at the fact that I could see his mouth.”
Marie Geelan (center) pointed out that public defenders have always had a tough job. “This is another layer of toughness, but honestly, we’re up for it. We’re doing it, and I feel very proud to have been keeping safe. This is what we do—we get up, suit up and show up.”
