Sports

     Capturing the emotions and beauty of sports is no easy feat, but for AliReza Basiri, it’s become a second nature. For the past few years, Basiri has played around with the art of photography and has made a name for himself on campus for making magic behind the lens. “I first started getting into camera work after my friends had kept telling me to buy a camera because I couldn’t stop taking pictures when we would do things together,” he said. “My sophomore year of college, I told myself I would give it a shot and bought my first camera, a Canon, and after that, I started to teach myself everything about photography.”

     Basiri originally grew up in Dubai and was raised there for 15 years before moving to Duluth. “I found my way to Duluth primarily to play soccer for college, but along the way, I found a love for marketing and the offerings the college had for students to work,” Basiri said. “I had the best four years playing soccer at the collegiate level.”

     This past season, he worked as the Goalkeepers Coach for the men’s and women’s teams and also helped coach with the Gitchi Gummi Soccer Club based out of Duluth. 

     During his time as a player, he started to notice the absence of media coverage surrounding the sport he loved. “As I was an athlete on the soccer team, I had always spoken to my teammates about the lack of media that our team had gotten, we wished there would be someone that could come and make cool videos about the team and take pictures from training and games,” he said. “With this hunger, I was eager to teach myself everything that I had wanted as a player, and to give current athletes the content that I had always wanted as a player.” Basiri has done just that as he’s given teams around campus the opportunity to show off the sides of their sports that most people don’t get to see.

     He has taken headshots, created game day videos, and set up media day sessions to help highlight the athletes on campus. His Instagram account, RezaShotEm, has been a way to share and showcase the projects he is working on and has completed. “Currently, I help out with the content for Saints Athletics, and right now, I am working on a project to highlight current Women’s Hockey Player, Jenna Horvat,” he said. “At the same time, I’m also making graphics, taking media day photos, headshots, and anything else that the department needs as the requests arise.”

     As a senior in college balancing coaching, studies, and projects, he has continued to progress while pursuing a degree in Marketing. “After college, I plan to continue my education in either marketing or digital media in grad school to gain the necessary knowledge needed to eventually be able to start my own media company,” Basiri said. “The end goal would ideally be to have businesses, universities, athletic teams, and organizations reach out for marketing purposes, whether that is digital media needs, marketing support, or social media management.”

     He said his favorite shoot that he has done was the CSS Baseball uniform unveiling and his favorite game to do was the volleyball team’s win against Augsburg. “There have been many other favorite games, shoots, and projects that I have done since I have started,” he said. “I think the more recent projects have been my favorite because with the more I learn, the projects get cooler.” 

     While this piece of athletics isn’t typically something that teams and spectators think about when they are looking to show off their team, Basiri recognizes its importance. With a new camera full of many capabilities, he has continued to showcase the Saints athletic teams throughout their respective seasons while also expanding into other projects around the Duluth area. “I think photography and videography in sports is important because you can create a piece of art and capture it to be saved and available for generations,” he said. “With the right knowledge and experience, you can create a video that can tell a really detailed and well done storyline which gives the audience a totally different experience of the same event or game that they were at.”