St. Louis native Brittany Packnett Cunningham adorns the cover of the September 2020 issue of British Vogue. In an unusual photojournalism power couple move, the photograph was taken by her husband, Reginald Cunningham, who is also a St. Louis native.
They first met at a Black Lives Matter protest following the 2014 St. Louis police killing of Vonderitt Myers Jr. just a few blocks from Cunningham’s family home. They were married in New Orleans at the end of 2019.
“We’ve spent more time as a married couple in quarantine than out,” Cunningham told British Vogue via Zoom from St. Louis. “It has been a wonderful test for us as newlyweds. I’m happy to say that we’re passing with flying colors.”
Though Cunningham’s mother was a photographer, he began to develop the art during the Ferguson unrest. He later moved to Washington, D.C. to work as a photographer full-time with the encouragement of Packnett Cunningham, his then girlfriend. Eventually, he founded his own brand, Be Pure Black.
“We’re in the middle of a cultural revolution right now, where a lot of exposure is coming to Black creatives, and we’ve always tried to amplify those voices,” Cunningham told British Vogue. “Being able to do that in a shoot for a Black editor-in-chief is simply amazing.”
Edward Enninful is editor-in-chief at British Vogue.
Packnett Cunningham selected a gown by Congolese designer Anifa Mvuemba for the final cover image, which Cunningham shot in D.C.’s Rock Creek Park.
“In the days leading up to the magazine being released, we were already excited,” Cunningham told British Vogue. “We’d look at each randomly and be like, ‘Hey babe, you’re gonna be in British Vogue.’ Then we found out that we were going to be on the cover, and we were just ecstatic, thanking God all morning. It felt completely surreal.”
As their hometown newspaper, The St. Louis American has covered especially Packnett Cunningham since long before she was known outside of St. Louis or the United States. In an interview with The American as then executive director of Teach For America-St. Louis published in June 25, 2014 – just a month and a half before the police killing of Michael Brown would provide an unprecedented platform for her and many other Black people from St. Louis to lead – she made prescient remarks.
“St. Louis has a special mix of people who are not out for self-glorification but for the betterment of the community,” she told The American. “That network cuts across multiple backgrounds, sectors and fields. They are people ready to take ownership of St. Louis.”
And, it turns out, to take leadership of America and maybe even the world.
