Through the Lens

by Charlotte Kovalchuk | photos courtesy of Brien Aho

Growing up among storytellers — a TV producer mom and sports writer dad Brien Aho caught the photography bug early in life. “When my father gave me a camera, I realized capturing photos of my friends and fellow classmates allowed me to be in community and tell stories.”

Brien’s photography journey is a story in itself, taking him from his high school yearbook and small newspapers in his Minnesota hometown to 45 countries as a combat photojournalist for the Navy. He shot for the Navy’s All Hands magazine, traveling to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba and capturing everything from autopsies and front lines action to special forces operations like fast roping, a technique troops use to enter an area by descending from a rope from a helicopter. “I got to experience everyone else’s jobs and come back and tell the world. It was the best job ever.”

During his 20-year service Brien was awarded first place more than six times in different categories in the Military Photographer of the Year contest, and helped shape future military photographers as a Navy instructor, before retiring and starting a new chapter as a marketing tech rep for Nikon. It gave him the chance to travel once again, this time to global sports events, including five Super Bowls and several World Cups and Olympics.

After being laid off during the pandemic, Brien became an audio-visual production specialist for the Food Safety Inspection Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “I create training videos for food inspectors, which unfortunately brings me to a lot of slaughterhouses.” Happily, when not working for the USDA, he is still able to pursue his love of visual storytelling as a sports freelancer for Getty Images and the Associated Press.

Another highlight of his photography journey, he says, has been seeing his daughter Sophia discover her own love for storytelling.

Capturing Moments

A senior at Liberty Hill High School, Sophia has always had a heart for taekwondo. After her martial arts gym closed for a time during COVID, she began helping her dad shoot a school football game and a new hobby was born. “I thought I was taking normal pictures like you would with a phone, but after I saw what I took pictures of, I loved what I captured.”

“The power of the image is amazing as it literally has convinced folks to stop wars or donate millions to a cause. The image in my opinion is far more powerful than words themselves. They say the power of the pen is mightier than the sword but I guarantee you an image is far more powerful!” ~Brien Aho

That experience inspired her to join her school’s yearbook staff and continue photographing different sports. What drives Sophia and her dad, she says, is getting to capture images “like sad moments if a football team loses a game, and really good moments like a sports team winning.”

She also covers sports events for a local newspaper and is considering studying photojournalism at UT, along with — hopefully — a scholarship to its taekwondo program. “Obviously, as a photographer and father, it’s kind of cool to see your kid follow in your footsteps. Hopefully she continues it and sees where it takes her,” Brien says.

His advice for other aspiring photographers? “Find a photographer who shoots in a way that inspires you and either reach out to them or learn from them by studying their imagery. And then go out and capture that type of work yourself.”

Check out Brien’s work at brienaho.photoshelter.com and Sophia’s on Instagram, @sosopixs.