09/11/2026
Twenty-five years ago today. How is that even possible?
Before I was a commercial photographer and co-founded East 27 Creative, I was a photojournalist.
On September 11, 2001, I was working for the St. Petersburg Times and photographing President George W. Bush in Sarasota, Florida. At the time, I was working professionally as Jennifer Davis, so if you notice that name on the press credential in these photos, that’s me.
The photo of me sitting on the floor with my camera was taken after the second plane had hit the World Trade Center. By then, we knew this wasn’t an accident. We knew something unimaginable was happening.
And yes, we were still shooting film.
I can still remember that day in incredibly vivid detail. The expressions on people’s faces. The confusion. The fear. The rush to understand what was happening.
I remember getting back and watching the photographs come across the wires, one after another. I remember the conversations in the newsroom about what we should publish — including the incredibly difficult debate over using the photographs of people jumping from the towers.
We put out a special edition that day. I still have it.
And then, just nine months later, my career took me somewhere I never could have imagined that morning: I went to work at the White House as a photo editor and photographer for the George W. Bush White House.
That chapter of my life was shaped in ways I couldn’t have understood at the time.
Photojournalism taught me how to watch, how to anticipate, how to tell a story, and how important photographs become with time. That part of me never left. It is still very much a part of how I photograph today.
Today, I’m thinking about the 2,977 people who were lost, their families, the first responders, the journalists who documented that day, and everyone whose life was forever changed.
Twenty-five years later, I still remember. And I always will.
