Photo source: andreabruce.com
This election day, National Geographic brings listeners a special episode of the Overheard at National Geographic podcast called “Documenting Democracy.” This week’s interview is with Andrea Bruce, photographer and National Geographic Explorer who has spent a lot of time in other countries covering wars. But a pivotal moment in Iraq inspired a recent project in America called “Our Democracy.”
During her time in Iraq, Andrea spent a year with a woman named Halla. Like many women in Iraq who lost their husbands due to bombings, Halla found herself with two children to look after and no job prospects, so she turned to prostitution. While following her for a year, one day Halla asked Andrea what democracy means. In the podcast, Andrea shares that her own unclear answer disappointed herself and to Halla, who thought democracy meant money, the answer was underwhelming.
Having discovered a love of photography in college while studying to be a writer, Andrea’s professional career began at a small town newspaper called the Concord Monitor that taught her how to get up close and personal with her assignments. That same approach served her well at the Washington Post when living abroad in places like Egypt, Afghanistan and Iraq. And while there, she got to see and experience some incredible moments.
Free of the Taliban’s rule, Andrea got to photograph Iraq’s first election in 2004. Polling places were separated by gender and being a woman came as an advantage for Andrea, who not only got to witness the men throwing rose petals into the air to celebrate, but the women taking off their burkas and smiling as they participated in the country’s first democratic election.
These lessons learned away from home inspired Andrea to explore all walks of life in the United States in 2015 in a project called “Our Democracy.” Having been asked what democracy means before, she was curious to know how other Americans would answer the question. During election day in 2016, she traveled to every polling place in her home of Pamlico County, North Carolina, and witnessed many Americans voting for the very first time.
At the end of the episode, host Amy Briggs asked Andrea if she was with Halla now and was asked what democracy is, what her answer would be. “I guess I would say that democracy is a place where you feel like you have an equal chance to make a difference in your community or to change your situation in your community,” Andrea said. “But I'm more interested in knowing what everyone else wants it to be also, not just even how they define it now.”
With your own right to vote this election day, you can help define what democracy means to you and what you want it to be.
You can listen to this full episode and others at the official Overheard at National Geographic website.