CT Minimah has been capturing live-action sports photos since 2017. He is a self-taught photographer and videographer who got his start as a photojournalist for a local news station.
Minimah has a philosophy that, due to the nature of sports being unscripted, “There is only one chance to get it right.”
Through his photos and videos, the athlete, parents, family and friends can relive these moments and cherish them forever.
Minimah is part of a long and often overlooked history of Black sports journalists who have impacted the American sports landscape. Black sports journalists were only allowed to work at African American-based publications in their early years.
Still, pioneers like Wendell Smith and Sam Lacy withstood racism and discrimination to form important bonds with the athletes they covered to tell their stories. These writers traveled abroad with Black athletes to get access and material for stories, detailing how these athletes were treated with more respect and regard in other countries than in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s.
Today Minimah’s work as a Black sports photojournalist in West Virginia continues this important legacy as so many stories, both in front of and behind the camera, have not been given their due appreciation.
In Minimah’s upcoming documentary on the West Side Girls Basketball team and his documentation of West Virginia‘s athletes, from youth sports to women’s flag football, his images are invaluable to the record.
The evolution of Black men and women into what was once a white-only field has been slow and meticulous, but one only needs to watch ESPN for a few hours to see the plethora of Black faces in sports media.
Despite progress, there remains a great deal of work to be done by mainly white-run establishments before true equality and diversity is achieved.
Minimah’s work is a testament to the importance of Black sports journalists, past and present, and the impact they have made on American sports and culture, and BBG is proud to feature CT Minimah’s story and exceptional work.
To view more of Minimah’s work, visit his web portfolio at ctminimahsports.com
