Andrea Booher is a

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

-based photographer, filmmaker, and photojournalist best known for her photographs of the

World Trade Center site The World Trade Center site, often referred to as " Ground Zero" or "the Pile" immediately after the September 11 attacks, is a 14.6-acre (5.9 ha) area in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The site is bounded by Vesey Street to the north ...

Education

Booher has a liberal arts degree from

Regis University Regis University ( ) is a Private university, private List of Jesuit educational institutions, Jesuit university in Denver, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1877 by the Jesuits, Society of Jesus, the university offers more than 120 degrees th ...

. She studied International Relations and Spanish at the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver, and the U ...

, and advanced Spanish at the University of Arizona's campus in

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( ; ) is the capital and the most populous city in the western Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco, as well as the most densely populated municipality in Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population ...

, Mexico. She won the Ernst Haas Photography Scholarship that she completed at the Anderson Ranch Art Center.

Career

FEMA - 3969 - Photograph by Andrea Booher taken on 09-19-2001 in New York

Photography

Booher has undertaken photography assignments from

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

UNDP The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human development. The UNDP emphasizes on developing local capacity towar ...

and

UNIFEM The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM, , ) was established in December 1976 originally as the Voluntary Fund for the United Nations Decade for Women in the International Women's Year. Its first director was Margaret C. Snyder. U ...

. Booher is a senior photographer for

Federal Emergency Management Agency The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Exec ...

and has documented more than 190 US disasters for the agency. Following the

September 11 attack The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

on the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are the hundreds of sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may also refer to: Buildings * World Trade Center (1973–2001), a building complex that was destroyed during the September 11 at ...

in Manhattan, New York, Booher, was given 24 hour access to the site. Booher was one of only two photographers who were granted access to the site. In the ten weeks she spent there following her arrival on September 12, she produced thousands of photographs documenting the role of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the cleanup of

ground zero A hypocenter or hypocentre (), also called ground zero or surface zero, is the point on the Earth's surface directly below a nuclear explosion, meteor air burst, or other mid-air explosion. In seismology, the hypocenter of an earthquake is its p ...

. Some of her photos were used to present the case of the dangers facing those who worked on The Pile. Booher photographed numerous disasters for FEMA in addition to the September 11 attacks, including floods in the Midwest,

Hurricane Andrew Hurricane Andrew was a compact, but very powerful and devastating tropical cyclone that struck the Bahamas, Florida, and Louisiana in August 1992. It was the most destructive hurricane to ever hit Florida in terms of structures dama ...

, California earthquakes, the Cerro Grande fire in New Mexico, and others.

Exhibits and documentary

Her work has been on display at the September 11 Museum since it opened in 2014. In 2011, Booher's documentary ''Portraits from Ground Zero'' aired on A&E in honor of the tenth anniversary of the attacks. Booher's work has been included in exhibitions at the

International Center of Photography The International Center of Photography (ICP) is a photography museum and school at 84 Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. ICP's photographic collection, reading room, and archives are at Mana Contemporary in Jer ...

, the

Museum of the City of New York The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) is a history and art museum in Manhattan, New York City, New York. It was founded by Henry Collins Brown, in 1923Beard, Rick. "Museum of the City of New York" in to preserve and present the history ...

, the

New York Historical Society The New York Historical (known as the New-York Historical Society from 1804 to 2024) is an American history museum and library on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum. It ...

, the

Smithsonian National Museum of American History The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center is a historical museum in Washington, D.C. It collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific, and m ...

among other venues.

Collections

Booher's work is included in the permanent collection of the

Museum of Fine Arts Houston The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. The permanent collection of the museum spans more than 5,000 years of history with nearly 80,000 works from six continents. Follo ...

. The U.S.

National Archives National archives are the archives of a country. The concept evolved in various nations at the dawn of modernity based on the impact of nationalism upon bureaucratic processes of paperwork retention. Conceptual development From the Middle Ages i ...

holds over 400 of her photographs.

Gallery

File:FEMA - 10348 - Photograph by Andrea Booher taken on 08-27-2004 in Florida.jpg, ''Damage to homes following Hurricane Charlie'', 2004 File:FEMA - 1051 - Photograph by Andrea Booher taken on 03-15-1998 in Georgia.jpg, ''Flooded homes along the Flint River in Albany, Georgia'', 1998 File:(Wildfires) Rancho Bernardo, CA, October 28, 2007 -- Friends help each other search for belongings in this Rancho Bernardo home destroyed by the San Diego wildfires Andrea Booher-FE - DPLA - 5da44bba01b9ab15891267d3a765557b.jpg, ''Friends help each other search for belongings in this Rancho Bernardo home destroyed by the San Diego wildfires'', Rancho Bernardo, CA, 2007 File:FEMA - 7493 - Photograph by Andrea Booher taken on 06-16-2002 in Colorado.jpg, ''The helitack and hot shot crews continue to extinguish spot fires in the forests of No Name creek above Glenwood Springs'', 2002 File:FEMA - 14508 - Photograph by Andrea Booher taken on 09-02-2005 in Texas.jpg, ''Approximately 18,000

hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...

survivors are housed in the Red Cross shelter at the Astrodome and Reliant center'', 2005 File:FEMA - 3600 - Photograph by Andrea Booher taken on 07-09-1993.jpg, '' Midwest floods'', 1993

References

External links

*
Portraits from Ground Zero, Vimeo link
{{DEFAULTSORT:Booher, Andrea Living people American photojournalists People from Colorado Regis University alumni University of Arizona alumni University of Colorado Boulder alumni American documentary film producers Year of birth missing (living people) American women photojournalists 21st-century American women photographers 21st-century American photographers