Inside the ropes at a golf course, photographer Shizuka Minami looks for the same thing she searches for at a matsuri: moments of shared energy, emotion and movement.
Sports and festivals may seem like an unlikely pairing, but to Minami, the combination makes perfect sense.
Her work — and her life — have long been guided by a simple instinct: a pull toward joy.
That led her to study aerospace engineering at Tokai University, inspired by her love of “Star Wars,” and later to leave Tokyo and enroll in a photography school in New York.
“I’m an empath, so I knew photographing crime scenes or war zones wasn’t for me,” she said. “I wanted to shoot photos of fun things, with a lot of action. Sports and matsuri (festivals) checked that box.”
While she was still a university student, Minami walked into a Yodobashi Camera store and asked what she needed to buy to become a photographer. She left with a Konica Minolta camera, and the rest took shape from there.
Hinako Shibuno at the 2021 U.S. Open
| SHIZUKA MINAMI
After living in the United States for 15 years, Minami moved back to Japan just before the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, the 46-year-old spends about seven months of the year traveling overseas to more than 50 cities as a freelance sports photographer.
The constant travel brings weekly changes in time zones, media meals, beds (which occasionally means an airport floor) and language. Minami admits it’s not a lifestyle for everyone, but says the pace suits her. What matters to her is the work itself, much of which happens quietly behind the scenes.
“I see my role as connecting people, like athletes and their fans. Fans can’t go to every game, so they depend on us to tell those stories,” she said.
Her sports photography career began with women’s golf at a time when even fewer women were working behind the lens. She enjoys covering the sport because photographers can position themselves anywhere — unlike in other sports such as baseball and soccer, for which access is more restricted — and says the slower pace of the women’s game makes it more physically manageable.
For years, Minami has followed female Japanese golfers across the U.S. and Europe, working at close range and focusing on the in-between moments.
While she doesn’t believe gender affects the quality of photography, she says the physical demands of the job are impossible to ignore.
“Most of the time, I don’t think about being a woman at all,” she said. “But I do feel the physical difference. Male golfers walk faster, so it can be hard to keep up, and I don’t think I could cover men’s golf all year long. I’m also only 155 centimeters tall, and walking 20,000 to 30,000 steps over 18 holes while carrying heavy gear really makes you aware of that.
“Male photographers may have a physical advantage in strength and height, but I notice different things they might miss — details that often carry a story.”
Shizuka Minami handling camera equipment on a golf course in 2015
| SHIZUKA MINAMI
One example came at the most recent Women’s Scottish Open, when Minami asked Japanese golfer Yuri Yoshida whether she wore blue nails to match the tournament’s signature color.
That kind of attentiveness stands out in a profession in which women have long been underrepresented.
At the Beijing Winter Games in 2022, for example, women made up only about 13% of the accredited photojournalist pool, according to IOC figures, a stark illustration of that imbalance.
Little changed two years later. Figures published on Olympics.com show that women represented just 15% of accredited photographers at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, remaining a small minority in a field that continues to skew heavily male.
From her own vantage point on tour, however, Minami has seen the makeup of the profession begin to shift.
“It used to feel like it was 90% men,” she said. “Now I’m seeing more women out there, and we tend to find each other.”
Her path into the sport hasn’t been without its lessons. One of her harder ones came early on, when she learned just how important silence can be in golf — her shutter went off at the wrong moment, mid-swing, during a tournament. It happened before cameras had the ability to mute the click of the shutter, a feature she now relies on every day.
Those experiences have shaped the way she works and the moments she values most. Witnessing Hinako Shibuno become the first Japanese player to win the Women’s British Open in 2019 was one of the highlights of her career, Minami said.
Even now, she’s still looking for new ways to tell those stories. While much of her sports photography has revolved around golf, Minami has recently begun exploring more dynamic movement through parkour, drawn to the challenge of capturing athletes as they move through the air.
“I think I’ve been lucky,” she said. “The way I started on this path, and the fact that I’m still being sent overseas even in this economic climate, make me really grateful and mindful of why the work matters. Our job as photographers is to connect people. Moments of victory don’t belong to just one place.”
Miyu Yamashita poses with the trophy after winning the 2025 AIG Women’s Open at Royal Porthcawl Golf Club in Wales on Aug. 3.
| SHIZUKA MINAMI
