During a typical workday, most people do not find themselves taking pictures from atop a 65-foot catamaran, but for Doug Van Sant ’97, this is just another day at the office. Van Sant is a co-owner of aLIVE Coverage, one of the most booked and successful festival photography teams in the world.
Originally, Van Sant decided to attend Shenandoah and pursue a degree in percussion. He was attracted to the university because he saw it as not just a conservatory, but also a school that was growing and developing in many areas. Van Sant’s foresight to attend a diverse university, not just one focused on music, was realized when he decided to change his major to mass communications.
After switching majors, Van Sant discovered an interest in broadcasting. When Shenandoah started a local access television station, Van Sant got in on the ground floor and gained experience with shooting and editing video. He was also able to take a class in new media, where he learned basic coding. At the time, the conversion from analog to digital media was relatively new, so Van Sant’s education gave him an edge and ultimately helped him land many of his future jobs.
Van Sant was writing about dance music and club culture in Tampa, Florida, when he began taking pictures as a means to encourage people to read his column. He was trying to write in such a way that people could “see” what he was seeing at events. With his background in broadcast journalism, the transition to photography was natural. “It is not crazy to be a visual person and find your way into photography,” he said.
One of Van Sant’s big breaks as a photographer came in 2010 at the Electric Zoo Music Festival. During the concert, Van Sant captured a picture of the up-and-coming DJ artist, Afrojack. The artist personally contacted Van Sant and the image was used to launch Afrojack’s website. At the time, Afrojack was a relatively new artist, but within the next few years, his success as a DJ skyrocketed. Through his connection to Afrojack, a lot of doors in the music industry opened up to Van Sant.
A second big break came in 2014 when Van Sant got involved with Insomniac, one of the world’s premier producers of music festivals and events. Through a contact, Van Sant was brought in as a photographer at all of Insomniac’s concerts. Van Sant soon realized he could make photography a full-time job and left his day job as a web developer.
Van Sant is known for getting into the crowd and capturing the emotion and energy of an event. Through his images, Van Sant relays the concertgoer’s perspective. “Getting into the crowd and getting those pyro shots and capturing people with their hands in the air, I don’t know if you can compare anything to that,” Van Sant said.
Van Sant’s success as a photographer is not limited to just dance music. He has photographed a variety of corporate events including the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) summit featuring First Lady Michelle Obama; the USO tour where he captured images of Olympic gold medalist Ryan Lochte and fellow Olympians Tyler Clary, Claire Donahue and Micah Lawrence; and the USO Gala where he had the opportunity to photograph actor Gary Sinise.
Van Sant’s advice for current mass communications students is to “be open-minded about where you want to take your career, but also to be looking a little bit ahead on where things are going.” Much of Van Sant’s career success can be attributed to getting in front of the technology and anticipating where the next trend is going to arise.