About

The camera is the newest
tool in a long career
of telling stories.

An award-winning writer, director, and filmmaker who took a long detour through the fitness world — and never fully left either one.

Education

BFA, Emerson College

Industry Experience

6+ Years — New York & Los Angeles

Certification

Les Mills US Trainer & Presenter, 2023

Based In

New Jersey

The Foundation

An artist first.
Always.

Long before a gym bag was part of the daily routine, there was a story to tell. A BFA from Emerson College — one of the country's leading programs for film and the arts — set the foundation for a career spent in writers' rooms, on set, and behind the camera in some of the most demanding creative environments in the country.

Six-plus years working across New York and Los Angeles in the entertainment industry isn't just a credential — it's a way of seeing. An instinct for narrative, for where the light needs to land, for what makes a moment worth capturing and what makes it forgettable. That training doesn't leave you. It shows up in every frame.

Award-winning work as a writer and director taught one essential truth about visual storytelling: the image has to earn its place. It has to say something real.

Amy Russo — artist first

6+

Years in the Entertainment Industry

2

Coast Cities — New York & Los Angeles

2023

Les Mills US Trainer & Presenter Certification

NJ

Based in New Jersey, available regionally

The Unexpected Turn

Fell into fitness.
Stayed for the art.

The entry point wasn't glamorous: bartering gym memberships in exchange for cleaning services and marketing content. Not exactly the origin story anyone plans. But something happened inside those gyms that the entertainment world had always offered in a different form — a community of people working at the edge of what they're capable of, trying to look as good as they feel, and needing someone with an eye to show the world what that actually looks like.

The trade became a calling. The cleaning bucket got traded for a camera bag. A lifelong athlete recognized something in this world that felt native — the language of movement, of effort, of the body doing what it's built to do.

The background in storytelling made it impossible to approach fitness photography as anything other than narrative work. Every shoot is a story. Every class is a performance. Every athlete is a character worth knowing.

Amy — fell into fitness

The Athlete

A lifelong athlete.
The eye knows.

Soccer was the first language. Years of being a competitive athlete meant knowing movement not as an observer, but as someone who has lived in the body that makes it — felt the anticipation before a sprint, the weight shift before a turn, the particular exhaustion that looks like strength from the outside.

That background is not incidental to the photography. It's central to it. When you've played the sport, you know where the moment is going half a beat before it gets there. You're already positioned. The shutter fires at the right time because your body knew what the athlete's body was about to do.

Photography and sponsored athlete partnerships with brands like adidas and Ultrahuman have deepened that language further — building a presence on both sides of the camera, and staying fluent in the culture of high-performance fitness from the inside.

Amy — lifelong athlete Amy — athlete

Les Mills

Certified inside
the culture.

Becoming a Les Mills United States Trainer and Presenter in 2023 wasn't a business decision — it was the natural end point of a long immersion. The certification put a title on something that had already been true for years: a deep, earned understanding of the Les Mills system, its philosophy, its music, and the specific electricity of a room when a class is working the way it's supposed to.

That insider knowledge translates directly to the work. Shooting Les Mills Experience and Les Mills Live Filming events at the national level requires more than a press pass — it requires fluency. Knowing which track builds to a peak. Knowing how an instructor moves when they're locked in. Knowing where to stand so you're invisible to the class but right there for the image.

Nobody has to explain Les Mills culture. That's already done.

Amy — certified inside the culture

Collaborations & Partnerships

Les Mills

US Trainer & Presenter — National Events

adidas

Photographer & Sponsored Athlete

Ultrahuman

Sponsored Athlete

Emerson College

BFA — Award-Winning Writer & Director

Ready to make something
worth looking at?

Whether you're an athlete, a studio, or a Les Mills instructor who's tired of photos that don't do justice to the work — let's talk.

Start a Project See the Work