Former Bearcat wrestler covers his sport at ‘amazing’ Olympics

You can call Justin Hoch ’04 a lot of things: Actor, writer, handyman, guitarist, acrobat, computer expert, content creator, documenter, journalist, speed typist, babysitter.

And as of August, you can add another title: Olympic photographer.

Hoch, a former Bearcat wrestler, spent two weeks in Paris as one of just two American photographers credentialed for USA Wrestling. The experience was the most recent accomplishment in Hoch’s meteoric rise in freelance photography, specifically in the sport of wrestling. Uniquely suited to capture the essence of the sport, given his 20 years of competition on the mat, Hoch has become one of wrestling’s most well-respected content creators, even as he only hits the decade mark as a full-time photographer.

Hoch’s most recent venue was the Champ de Mars Arena in Paris, where he captured the pinnacle of international competition over seven days and 338 matches at the Olympics. Never too far from his Binghamton roots, Hoch also found time to meet up with Bearcat Olympian Emily Mackay.

“In a word, it was amazing,” he says about the Olympics. “There’s this overarching sense of community everywhere you go — from the venues to the restaurants to the metro trains and stations. People were energized and excited about the Games. The buzz was everywhere, and it felt like we were all in this magical bubble together, regardless of your role. It was just so much fun.”

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Fully immersed in the action is where Hoch is accustomed to being. As an undergraduate in the early 2000s, Hoch displayed an inquisitive, positive, cerebral mentality — one that served him well as an athlete and a student.

“Justin had great analytical skills,” former coach Mike Fusilli recalls. “He liked breaking things down into parts when wrestling. He was very cognitive in practice and on the mat.”

Never one to shy away from a heavy workload, Hoch juggled being an NCAA Division I student-athlete with leadership roles and civic engagement. Oh, and he graduated with two bachelor’s degrees (psychology and finance), both earned with honors.

But despite his achievements as a student-athlete and his leadership across campus, it was his personality and easygoing nature that foreshadowed success.

“Justin’s ability to network with alumni and wrestling parents was impressive,” Fusilli adds. “He was able to carry on ‘adult-like’ conversations. I know those groups appreciated the interest he shared when speaking with them. He was also a great advocate for the program when recruits visited.”

And now Hoch is one of the best advocates the sport of wrestling could ask for.

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It took Hoch nearly 10 years to fully marry the disciplines of wrestling and photography. After graduation, he worked two full-time jobs in Binghamton before moving to New York City with hopes of becoming an actor. While building his portfolio and auditioning for theater, film, television and voiceover roles, he dabbled in freelance editing and design (for a novel), took IT jobs in networking and website design, babysat and provided move-in van service.

His first foray into wrestling photography came in 2010, when he worked first as a freelancer and later full-time at the youth development nonprofit Beat the Streets. The group’s mission was to spread and build the sport of wrestling into urban areas. He also performed grant writing and development for the organization, leaning on his management and finance roots at Binghamton. But soon the opportunity emerged to move full-time into photography — and he dove in head-first.

“My first interest in recording and documenting was actually film,” he says. “I loved movies and wanted to make them. But I found still photography to have a lower barrier to entry and the post-processing work was faster, so I gravitated toward that. Telling stories and having an objective memory of things appealed to me.”

Meanwhile, Hoch was adding up acting credits. In 2010, he appeared in the HBO movie You Don’t Know Jack with Al Pacino and John Goodman. In an eight-year span, he performed in more than a dozen theater roles, did several voiceovers and commercials, and trained with several studios and casting directors.

But the pull toward wrestling photography grew stronger. In 2015, he started his lauded The Fire Inside project, a portrait-style series featuring more than 3,500 wrestlers, coaches and media members to date. The up-close, often startlingly dramatic series showcases the grit and intensity so woven into the sport.

In addition to his projects, Hoch began traveling to cover international wrestling and shot tournaments in Iran, Guatemala and Kazakhstan, to name a few. His work was recognized by wrestling magazine WIN, which named Hoch its 2019 Journalist of the Year. The recognition helped springboard Hoch’s career.

“I always believed that if you are good at what you do, people will come to you,” he says.

Hoch also started The Dream Project, in which he documents the journey of elite wrestlers as they train in preparation for the highest level of competition. The project will be completed in the runup to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games and culminate with a photo book.

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Whether it’s his individual portraits, documentary-style shoots or match-action photography, Hoch is passionate about wrestling.

“Wrestling is foundational for what you do the rest of your life,” he says. “No other sport or activity is as good at building resilient, capable humans as wrestling. Once I came to that conclusion, telling the story of wrestling and its power became a critical part of my purpose.”

Has his decades-long experience in sport helped his eye behind the camera?

“I certainly have a more evolved sense of anticipating what might happen in any given scenario,” Hoch says. “When movements happen in split seconds, that anticipation can mean the difference between getting a shot and missing entirely.”

“I know that his ability to anticipate wrestling situations for award-winning photos comes not just from his wrestling background, but the time he spent thinking through match strategies and being a student of the sport,” Fusilli adds.

But Hoch not only is a student of the sport. He is a student of life: one who loves deep, exhaustive learning and one who has no fear of trying or failing. Hoch’s zest for living, engaging, learning and sharing has served him well — and his photography subjects and audience are all the better for it.

“I love the wrestling community,” he says. “It’s a wildly eclectic, diverse group of people ... not just in the U.S., but around the world. I’m fascinated by the different ways we exist as humans, and wrestling has given me so many opportunities to experience them. My hope is that I can then communicate that experience through my work. When I can do that successfully, it’s both magical and gratifying.”