Photographers On The Iconic Photographs Taken During 9/11
 15 Photographers On The Iconic Photographs Taken On 9/11
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 📸For Your 👀 Only:  Eric Draper Eric Draper is a freelance photographer now based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For eight years, he was the White House photographer for then-president George W. Bush. When 9/11 happened, Draper, like the president himself, had been in the job for seven months. We spoke with him about what that day was like, how it impacted the rest of his time in the White House, and how "everything is connected in history." What was your background in photography like before you started working at the White House?
I was a photojournalist for three newspapers in the beginning of my career. I later started as a staff photographer for the Associated Press. The position at the White House was one of those opportunities that you can't plan for. I covered the presidential campaign in 2000, never thinking it would lead to the White House. When the election happened that night in Austin, Texas, I had been traveling for 18 months on the campaign trail.
They say timing is everything, and so right around the time that the Supreme Court ruled the election and Governor Bush from Texas became President-Elect Bush, I was invited to a Christmas party with the pres-elect. I walked up to him and asked him for the White House photographer position. And it worked! He looked at me like he had never thought about it before, so we had this really long handshake and he said, "Thank you for that, I'll get back to you." A week later, I was back in Texas interviewing for the position. At the interview, Andy Card, the chief of staff, said that working at the White House was like drinking water through a firehose full throttle, and he was right. The job was all encompassing and fulfilling, to have this amazing access to witness so much history.  Eric Draper What was that day like, Sept. 11, 2001?
We were in Sarasota, Florida, that morning; we'd traveled there the night before for an education event. I was sitting next to Ari Fleischer, the president's press secretary. This was before cell phones; we had pagers. A bulletin came over his pager and he said, "Oh my God, a plane hit the World Trade Center." But that's all we knew — it was a tragic disaster but there was no indication of anything more. It wasn't until watching the president react to Andy Card in the classroom that we realized it was much more. He got very serious, and it wasn't until he left the classroom and I followed him into the room adjacent that there was a television where we saw live pictures of the burning towers.
No one had any clue how widespread the attack was at that moment — we were all focused on New York. It was incredible to see how the situation expanded after we learned about the Pentagon, flight 93 airborne and headed towards Washington. It escalated so quickly within such a small period of time. I was horrified like everyone else, but I had to suppress my reaction to capture the president's reaction and focus on making the pictures.  Eric Draper What were the next steps?
That day was a very long day. We were on the plane most of the day; by the time we left the classroom, we learned that the VP had been evacuated and the entire US airspace had been shut down.
Andy was at the door of Air Force One telling everyone to take the batteries out of their phones — we were worried that we were a target and that we may be attacked. I made several pictures of him and Andy arguing, because the president wanted to get back to Washington and lead from the Oval Office, and Andy was trying to calm him down and tell him it wasn't safe.
It was very intense, we didn't know what was going to happen next. We were flying around on the airplane, and I learned later that the pilot had taken us out over the Gulf of Mexico and we were just flying in circles, because we knew that up there at least the president was safe.
We couldn't stay airborne forever, so we headed for a secure location — Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. We didn't think anyone knew where we were, but then the news picked up that we were coming in at Louisiana and we watched ourselves land on the television.
We visited ground zero on Sept. 14. It was called the day of national prayer, where we started the day in DC with a service at the National Cathedral with the president and former presidents, and then we headed to ground zero. The president wanted to see the destruction for himself and visit with the firefighters and the family of the missing. It was an intense experience, a roller coaster of emotions. It culminated with the bullhorn moment where the president stood on the rubble and addressed the firefighters. Leading up to that, he's shaking their hands, they are exhausted from the search for survivors, they are tired and angry, it was like we were standing on a raw nerve. We could tell that they wanted him to do something, and that was the bullhorn moment where he said that the people who knocked the buildings down will hear from all of us soon. I knew that was a historic moment.  Eric Draper With everything that's happening today, how do you feel looking back at all of this?
Everything is connected in history to me; there's a chain reaction to everything. There's a lot that preceded 9/11, and the president had a job to do following 9/11, with getting involved in trying to take down the Taliban. Like any war, once you start it, you own it, it's hard to get out. It's tragic in one sense, but the objective was made, taking down al-Qaeda and killing Bin Laden. Each administration takes the ball from there and has their own objectives. It's amazing that it has been the longest war, and it's sad to see it end this way. It's shocking and sad to see how it affected the Afghan people. It's really hard to see.
The ultimate job of the White House photographer is to create a visual archive of the administration, to capture the moments that can tell a story. These pictures show some of that tension and emotion — it goes to show you what an intense day that was. Hopefully, now that we're 20 years later, those images still resonate and still tell the story. With the context we have all these years later, it tells even more of a story.  📸MORE FROM OUR DESK 📸 As always, here are some of the best photo stories from around the internet, and what we loved from our desk.  Jeff Mermelstein MEET THE STREET PHOTOGRAPHER WHO CHRONICLES NEW YORK CITY'S EVOLVING STYLE  Johnny Cirillo IF YOU LOVE COLLEGE FOOTBALL YOU SHOULD FOLLOW THESE PHOTOGRAPHERS ON INSTAGRAM  Angela Wang / Texas Athletics
5 THINGS WE LOVED THIS WEEK 1. BuzzFeed Launches Afghan Journalist Fellowship
2. Tyler Mitchells two (2!) shows at the Jack Shainman Gallery locations in New York, if you need a mood boost.
3. The craziest celebrity moments in Met Gala history from Vogue reminded us that even more crazy is right around the corner, as the 2021 Met Gala happens next week.
4. Dawoud Bey's show "In This Here Place" features the artist's photographs of plantations in Louisiana where enslaved peoples were forced to work, taken in the present day. The images are haunting, incredibly detailed, and beautiful.
5. Never before seen Warhol, anyone?  One last note from New York's Fashion Week, attendees petting a dog outside a venue in Manhattan on September 10, 2017. "We are making photographs to understand what our lives mean to us." — Ralph Hattersley That's it for this week! Kate, Kirsten + Pia
📝 This letter was edited and brought to you by the News Photo team. Kate Bubacz is the photo director based in New York and loves dogs. Pia Peterson is a photo editor based in Brooklyn. You can always reach us here.
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