Bruce

About: Andrea Bruce is a photographer, educator, artist and writer whose work focuses on ideas of democracy and the aftermath of war. She concentrates on the social issues that are sometimes ignored and often ignited in war's wake. Her work bridges art and journalism and welcomes a critical understanding and reimagining of both.

View Curriculum Vitae

Education

MFA, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2024)
B.A., Journalism and Mass Communication, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (1995)

Experience

Andrea Bruce's photography clients include National Geographic andThe New York Times, as well as many publications around the globe. Andrea was a 2016 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University where she studied ideas of democracy. She is the publisher and creator of the hyper-local, visual-first publication Down in the County serving Pamlico County, NC.

Andrea started working in Iraq in 2003, bringing a local reporter’s knack for intimacy and community focus to the lives of Iraqis and the U.S. military. For eight years she worked as a staff photographer for The Washington Post, where she originated and authored a weekly column called "Unseen Iraq.” She also worked at The Concord Monitor and The St. Petersburg Times after graduating from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1995. She is a member/ owner of the photo agency NOOR. 

In 2011, she was an Alicia Patterson Fellow and in 2019 she was a CatchLight Fellow and a National Geographic Explorer. Her awards include the 2018 IWMF Anja Niedringhaus award, a 2014 World Press Photo 2nd prize for Daily Life and the inaugural Chris Hondros Fund Award in 2012 for the “commitment, willingness and sacrifice shown in her work.” She has been named Photographer of the Year four times by the WHNPA, received several awards from the Pictures of the Year International contest, including the 2017 Environmental Vision Award, and was awarded the prestigious John Faber Award from the Overseas Press Club in New York. 

For the past several years she has continued to freelance on a local and global scale while teaching, first for New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and then Ball State University. She received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2024. 

She is currently a Nikon European Ambassador and serves on the board of the Stanley Greene Foundation. 

Awards and Fellowships

• 2024, Press Forward Grant for Down in the County
• 2023, CatchLight Senior Fellow
• 2019, National Geographic Explorer
• 2018, CatchLight International Fellow
• 2018, Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award
• 2018, Pictures of the Year International, Environmental Vision Award
• 2015-2016, Nieman Fellowship, Harvard University
• 2013, World Press Photo Award
• 2012, Chris Hondros Award
• 2011, Alicia Patterson Fellowship
• 2010, White House News Photographer’s Association Grant
• 2009, Aftermath Project Grant
• 2009, Photographer of the Year, White House News Photographers Association
• 2006, Photographer of the Year, White House News Photographers Association
• 2005, Overseas Press Club, John Faber Award
• 2004, Photographer of the Year, White House News Photographers Association
• 2003, Photographer of the Year, White House News Photographers Association