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ZOEY HOLSTROM
University of Michigan
Q: When did you start working with sports photography?
“I think when I started, I was in high school and I actually took an AP Studio art class my senior year and my teacher that I had was kind of the first person to actually believe in me with this and photography. It was a senior year when I actually started to get into it.”
Q: Did you want to go into a sports photojournalism career then?
"At the time, photography was the only thing I thought I was good at. I actually went to Ohio University my freshman year to study photo journalism, and then after the first year I was like, ‘I hate this.’ And that’s when I transferred to Michigan. I did initially want to, but not then.”
Q: But you joined the Daily to work with photojournalism anyways?
“I knew when I transferred I didn’t want to do photography as a career, but I still wanted to find a creative outlet where I could still do photography, but it was more of a side thing. And I think, especially with the Daily, I’ve been able to still practice it.”
Q: What do you look for in a photo you're proud of?
“I think for me, especially with doing sports, a lot of the time — especially at bigger events, when you’re sitting next to twenty different people taking photos — I think finding something that other people aren’t necessarily looking at is important. I know I try to do more artsy shots than other people do, so just like going in between people or having different framing options is something I like to do. It’s looking where everyone else isn’t and trying to find photos that way.”
Q: Do you have a favorite moment or memory from working in sports photojournalism?
“I think the biggest thing for me was, I don’t know if this was the main one, but probably one of the biggest ones was going to Joe Louis Arena. I think that was the biggest thing for me because I had done some bigger things prior to that, but I grew up my entire life watching hockey there. So being able to cover the last time Michigan hockey would play there was kind of when I was like afterwards, ‘Oh my gosh, I just did that,’ and I called my parents after. And then we got to be sad after because it’ll never happen again.”
Q: Do you have any other thoughts you want to share?
"The biggest thing for me, as far as the Daily goes, is that I went into it wanting to not do photojournalism. So just being able to do that, without the pressure of having to do it as a career is why the Daily is so great for me. Even though I know a lot of the more creative photos I take aren’t run (in print), I still get to keep them and use them however I want to.”
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