Getty Sports photographer becomes a Hofstra professor

Al Bello, a sports special correspondent for Getty Sports, has been named Sport Photographer of the Year by three different committees. // Photo courtesy of Al Bello.

Sports special correspondent for Getty Sports, Al Bello, spoke to Professor Mario Gonzalez’s multimedia video journalism course on Thursday, March 31, about his career as a sports photographer. Bello will be back at Hofstra University in the fall to teach a photojournalism for sports course and plans to mentor the young photographers. 

“If you’re going to succeed, you’ve got to want it,” Bello said. “You’ve got to work hard, relentless, long hours, off hours, strange hours. This is not a 9-to-5 job, by no stretch of the imagination. You don’t shut the computer and that’s it. My job can start at five in the morning and end at 11 o’clock at night.”

Last month, Bello returned to his home in New York after working the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics for Getty Sports. He was at the games during the month of February and was in Tokyo just six months before that for the Summer Olympic Games. 

In Tokyo, Bello photographed aquatic sports and focused on diving into more underwater photography. This year in Beijing, he and his camera headed up a slope. 

“Now it’s freezing cold every day, I’m bundled up. I’ve got a vest with heating pockets; it’s minus 20 degrees every day. My fingers are split; they’re bleeding,” Bello said. “So every day, it’s kind of a challenge just to get to the mountain. You climb up 45 degree angle mountains and ski to the spot. It’s physical, right?”

Students who are going into sports reporting found it helpful to hear Bello’s anecdotes. 

“[It’s] most interesting to learn how he positions himself where the action is, uses shutter speed to slow the game, how to watch where the best lighting is and what goes into taking shots of different sports,” said Avery Torff, a sophomore sports journalism major.

Bello got his start in photography after taking a class in the subject during his junior year at Stony Brook University. As a player for the Seawolves’ football team, he first began photographing his teammates and friends in other athletic programs. Once Bello realized the impact of his photography on his friends, he was hooked. 

“For them to just say, ‘Oh, wow, this is really cool, Al. I’m so happy you did this for me.’ That’s when it resonated for me that I can get a reaction out of people,” Bello said.

Bello was honored in the Football Hall of Fame for his sports photography.

Throughout his over-30 year career as a sports photographer, Bello’s most memorable images are capturing the one-handed touchdown catch by wide receiver Odell Beckham of the New York Giants in 2014 and the COVID-19 hug image he took in 2020. Bello reflected on “The Beckham Catch.” 

“Sometimes I’ll just see what’s happening on the field and right away, he dropped back and he launched it, and I just knew,” Bello said. “I couldn’t orchestrate that; I can only hope that’s how a catch like that happened. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve actually missed something like that, too.”

When sports were shut down because of the pandemic, Bello found a new subject to photograph – news. One day, his sister called with a possible lead for an image. Her husband’s grandparents had not seen the family in three months but were dying to see their family again. Bello drove over and found a clothesline with a clear plastic sheet pinned to it that the family could hug and embrace each other through. 

“When the grandparents showed up, it just got so emotional, very quickly,” Bello said. 

Bello’s presentation to Professor Gonzalez’s class was very insightful, according to the students in attendance. 

“I never in a million years thought I would consider taking a sports journalism class at Hofstra,” said Elisabeth Ford, sophomore journalism student. “But I’m definitely taking his class if I can.” 

For the opportunity to learn more from Bello, students can take his photojournalism for sports course in the fall 2022 semester. The class will be offered on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:40 a.m. to 11:05 a.m.