Growing up, Hannah Foslien was surrounded by sports from her father’s stories of winning the Big Ten Individual Championship in the 2-mile for the University of Minnesota to the dreams of a young girl twirling around the living room wanting to be Kristie Yamaguchi. It did not matter what the sport was; as a family the Foslien’s were either playing it or watching it. From backyard basketball games of H.O.R.S.E. and Fourth of July breakfast at Wimbledon, sports are a major part of her life.
After Hannah graduated from Roseville Area High School, she headed west. She went to Montana State University for a year before moving to Ventura, California to attend Brooks Institute of Photography. Her major in Visual Journalism not only trained her in photojournalism but in graphic design, webpage layout and documentary film as well. Hannah received her Bachelor’s Degree in Visual Journalism from Brooks.
In 2006 the stars aligned – Hannah began a photography internship for the Minnesota Twins. For two seasons she worked for the baseball club, where she was able to improve her sports photography skills during 163 home games (including two post season games) and countless team related events. With player appearances and major pregame ceremonies, Hannah was responsible for producing photo galleries for TwinsBaseball.com. While the team was away and during the off season, she digitally archived images from the years 1901 to 2001. It was awe-inspiring for Hannah to be a part of maintaining the visual history of the baseball team she had grown up supporting. Hannah used her education in graphic design to provide layout assistance for the publications.
After leaving the Twins organization, Hannah has been actively pursuing a freelancing career. She works regularly with the Associated Press and Getty Images. Hannah’s work has appeared in The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, Sports Illustrated: Kids, The Washington Post, The Sporting News, ESPN.com, ESPN: The Magazine and multiple other online and print publications.
Hannah continues to educate herself about sports and photography. She attends photography workshops and conferences, spends time watching online photography tutorials and reading relevant books from her field.
Her education and work experience continue to show that if you love what you do, work will never feel like work.