Photographer behind iconic Bush 9/11 photo reflects on that day, 25 years later

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) - Photojournalist Win McNamee was covering what he expected to be a routine presidential trip to Florida 25 years ago when he captured one of the most recognizable images of September 11, 2001.

You’ve likely seen the photo a hundred times - President George W. Bush, seated in an elementary school classroom, listening as his chief of staff, Andrew Card, leans in and whispers into his ear.

It has been reprinted in newspapers, textbooks, and even seen often on social media now. What is less known, is the man behind the photograph is 12 On Your Side’s Madison McNamee’s father.

While he is not typically a fan of interviews, Win McNamee made an exception for this 25th anniversary of such an impactful event.

McNamee, now chief photographer for news at Getty Images, was working for Reuters in 2001, and traveling with the White House press pool in September that year for a trip to Florida with the president, who was promoting a literacy program.

“It’s by happenstance,” he said. “At that time we just had a rotation. You would be there for two weeks at a time, somebody else would cycle in two weeks at a time, and whatever trips happened during those days, that was your trip.”

The 11th just happened to fall on his weeks.

“We thought September 11th was going to be a routine presidential trip,” McNamee said. “We had traveled the day before. I think he went down to see his brother Jeb. And then the next morning, we knew he was going to visit an elementary school as part of his official visit to the state of Florida.”

How the news unfolded

The first sign things were not in fact routine, happened before even entering the school. McNamee recalls hearing about the first tower as they were leaving the motorcade.

“Any pilot would do anything in the world possible to avoid running their plane into a building of that size,” he said. “So, it sounded a little strange, but at first we didn’t really know what the extent of the day’s news was going to carry.”

The press pool continued on into Emma E. Booker Elementary School, where President Bush had a scheduled visit tied to his literacy initiative. He was reading to a classroom of students when a few minutes in, Andrew Card walked through the door.

“That’s sort of the defining moment that people have of that situation. And frankly, even then, we didn’t have news of the second tower yet,” McNamee said.

McNamee captured the moment, even without the knowledge of the gravity it held.

“You’re thinking, I have to make a picture of this, because it could be something,” he said. “But it’s not that rare. I mean, they do come in and tell the president certain things, whether it’s related to the stock market, some kind of incident. And so, yes, you could say, I’m not going to shoot that, but of course, that’s your job.”

He says rumors started to go around, but he points out, the tragedy was before smartphones and any way to search and share content while on the go, quickly.

President Bush continued reading to the students, and it was a couple of minutes before everyone else knew what had happened.

“I think he was trying to figure out, what do we do?” McNamee said.

The president left the classroom, and then made his first statement on the situation. McNamee recalls it being brief, only lasting a couple of minutes. No questions were taken after it.

“It had to have been maybe 20 minutes after the second plane had hit,” he said. “And I think there was a lot of uncertainty around what had happened.”

McNamee’s photos of the speech have been heavily used, as well.

“These moments, you’re trying to just find something that illustrates how they’re feeling in the moment,” he said.

‘Where are we going?’

From there, the day deviated from the schedule. Everyone was taken to the airport, where their bags had to be inspected again. Dogs and armed members of the military conducted a more thorough security search.

No one knew where they were heading.

“When we arrived in the press cabin, we asked the airmen or women who service Air Force One, like, ‘where are we going?’ And they said, ‘we don’t know.’ Which is the first time, and only time, I’ve ever gotten on that plane, and I’ve been on that plane hundreds of times, where we don’t know where we’re going,” McNamee said.

Replacing the usual chatter and jokes, the flight was solemn the entire way, and got heavier by the second. On grainy televisions, the devastation was still evident, as images from New York and the news from the Pentagon started to come in.

“At this point, it really did feel like, life has changed, and it’ll never be the same again,” McNamee said.

They eventually landed at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.

McNamee recalls staying there for an hour or two, before the president was taken to an even more secure location, and then back to DC.

“You become very concerned about your family too,” McNamee said. “As soon as I hit the ground in Louisiana and was able to contact your mom, I called her and said, get the kids, get them in the car and head to your grandfather’s house, which was at that time, like in very rural Virginia, out in the Shenandoah Valley.”

‘Solemn and deep moment’

He wasn’t sure yet whether more attacks were coming, or where. And the moment reminded him of a conversation he’d once had with his own father about the Cuban Missile Crisis.

“He did the same thing with your your grandmother, and said, get the kids in the car and go to my grandmother’s house.”

In the days that followed, McNamee continued documenting the president’s response, including a visit to Ground Zero, where Bush met with firefighters and rescue workers still searching for survivors.

“That was just an incredibly solemn and deep moment,” he said, “When you stop and think about it, the area that we were touring was essentially the place where thousands of people died. It doesn’t get any heavier than that, or more real.”

One image from that trip stands out to him still: the president standing on a pile of rubble, arm around a firefighter, bullhorn in hand.

He also photographed Bush addressing Congress days later, holding up the badge of a police officer killed in the attacks.

“He was misty-eyed,” McNamee said.

Life pre-9/11 vs. post 9/11

Looking back, 25 years later, McNamee says the scale of that day is hard to fully process, even now.

“I think, you know, in anybody’s lifetime, there’s a series of events that are like that, where life is different,” he said. “It’s the marker, pre-9/11, post-9/11.

At the time, still trying to make sense of it, he called a relative for perspective: his great-uncle Gilbert, who was in his 80s and had lived through World War II. They discussed the parallels with Pearl Harbor.

“And I said, ‘you know, I have this feeling right now that life is never going to be the same.’ And his response is something I will always remember, and I think it’s important to remember for everybody: ‘Yes, life has changed. But you know what? Life also goes on.’”

“That is so important to remember,” McNamee added. “That even at the times of greatest national peril, disturbance, sadness, you have to fully embrace the moment to process the immediate event. But at the end of the day, life does go on.”

He’s since covered other generation-defining stories but says 9/11 remains near the top.

“For me, it’s, you’re covering the president, who is a vital aspect of the story. But the more immediate, more impactful part of the story is on the ground in New York, or on the ground at the Pentagon, where these things have taken place,” McNamee said. “But the unique thing about covering the White House is that stories always kind of return there, in some fashion.”

McNamee says anniversaries can feel arbitrary sometimes, but a quarter century carries weight.

“When you think about it in that context, it can be a little bit overwhelming,” McNamee said.

When it comes to his own takeaway for the anniversary, McNamee didn’t point to the photograph, or to his own career.

“The overall feeling still has to be reflection,” he said. “About the people who lost their lives, and the families of those who lost their lives, and all the service members who have contributed to the various efforts in the wake of that, whether it was in Afghanistan or Iraq.”