As a photojournalist for the Washington Post, Andrea Bruce has covered the ongoing story in Iraq on many occasions since 2003. Despite the dangers and high incidence of violence and death in Iraq, she has felt compelled to return each time for the sake of telling the visual story.
“I think many people, my own family included, try to shut out Iraq these days. People don’t have a good sense of what it is like for anyone over there, and it’s one of the reasons I go back. And I go back because I feel like maybe this time I can really get people to see what it’s like or get people to really care” said Bruce in February, 2005, during an Online NewsHour interview with Terence Smith.
On Monday, September 10th, area residents will have a choice of two opportunities at Southwest Virginia Community College to meet and hear Andrea Bruce speak about her passion for portraying the human struggle to survive.
“Andrea Bruce: Through the Human Lens,” the featured exhibit in the Charles R. King Community Center Gallery running September 6th through October 4th, will be launched with an Artist Reception and Slide/Talk presentation by Bruce on September 10th at 12 noon, and again at 6:00 PM, in the Community Center. Bruce will also present her slide/talk at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy on Wednesday, September 12, in the Appellate Courtroom. The public is invited to all presentations and they are free of charge.This past spring, Washington Post photojournalist Andrea Bruce Woodall was introduced to the mountains of Buchanan County, the citizens of Grundy, and the beauty of Breaks Interstate Park when she came down with a Post newspaper crew doing a story on Grundy’s dramatic downtown changes of late.
Her interest was sparked in coal mining and the life of coal miners, so she stayed longer to begin a photojournalism piece about the subject. She now looks forward to returning to the mountains in September to share her own story with students, staff, and citizens of the region at SwVCC and ALS.
And what a story it is! Andrea Bruce Woodall always wanted to become a journalist, but she didn't know she would prefer photojournalism over print until her senior year at the University of North Carolina. "After taking one photojournalism class, I fell in love with my camera," said Woodall.
"My art history minor had already introduced me to the wonders of light. But exploring news visually, complementing word stories with pictures, and connecting with readers on a more emotional and empathetic level are the features that attracted me to changing my future to photography."
Her career has been on an upward trajectory ever since. After several internships, she landed her first staff job at the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire. A brief stint at the St. Petersburg Times then led to an offer at The Washington Post where she currently works as a staff photographer.
As a photojournalist, Andrea Bruce has put herself in harm’s way on many occasions. Not only has she been imbedded with American troops in Iraq several times, she has also covered a major earthquake in Pakistan hours after the tragedy occurred in 2005, and more recently, she has sought the stories of women struggling to survive on the streets of Baghdad.
For these efforts among many others, for her extraordinary “eye” as a photographer, and for the personal compassion she has shown for the human story, Bruce was named “Photographer of the Year” by the White House News Photographers' Association in February of 2003, and has been nominated for the Pulitzer prize in photojournalism.