After an award-winning stint as a photographer with The Daily Iowan and the opportunity to document a historic women’s basketball tournament run, Grace Smith is continuing to pursue creative visual storytelling — and to photograph a favorite Iowa baller.
Story: Sara Epstein Moninger
Photography: Grace Smith and David Scrivner
Published: May 8, 2025
When Hawkeye hoops standout Caitlin Clark was snagged by the Indiana Fever as the first pick in the 2024 WNBA draft, she wasn’t the only University of Iowa graduate bound for Indianapolis.
Grace Smith, who earned a BA in journalism and mass communication and cinema, was hired as a staff photojournalist at The Indianapolis Star, known as IndyStar, shortly after her 2024 commencement. One of her beats? The Fever.
The territory was familiar for Smith: Not only had she been a photo editor at The Daily Iowan, but she also had exclusive access to Clark and the Iowa women’s basketball program during the team’s 2023–24 season and championship bid. Smith and peers from The Daily Iowan, the Daily Iowan Documentary Workshop, and the UI School of Journalism and Mass Communication spent months covering the team on and off the court, culminating in More Than a Moment: Elevating the Game With Iowa Women’s Basketball, a 240-page book published in May 2024.
“So, when I got to Indianapolis, I was used to loud arenas and people going crazy, and it was definitely special to be able to continue documenting history,” says Smith, recalling the moment she and the all-time leading scorer in NCAA Division I basketball connected in their new home. “During player introductions, maybe the second game I covered, Caitlin and I both looked at each other and waved. It was really cool to see her again.”
When Grace Smith was covering University of Iowa basketball games, she averaged 3,000 photos per game.
Smith, who is from Indianola, Iowa, says basketball is one of her favorite things to photograph, so following Clark, the WNBA’s 2024 Rookie of the Year, to a state dubbed “the basketball state” has been pure joy. In addition to the Indiana Fever, Smith’s beat includes high school sports. She says she is enjoying photographing new athletes — and for a larger audience.
“I wasn’t prepared for the amount of people who would be looking at my work,” says Smith, whose employer is part of the USA Today Network. “But I’m still doing the same thing I was doing in Iowa City: getting those storytelling photos of fans crying when they get an autograph, following Kelsey Mitchell or Caitlin Clark down the court, and being ready for those special moments off of the court.”
In April 2025, Smith was one of six photojournalists selected by Imagn Images, a sports-image wire service used by the USA Today Network, to cover the Masters Tournament, one of the four major championships in men’s professional golf.
“It was fun to work with a new group of people — including photographers I look up to — in a short amount of time and figure out how we were going to work as a team,” says Smith, whose only previous experience shooting golf was at a high school tournament.
A tradition of excellence
The University of Iowa has had a student-produced newspaper since 1868. Student staff members at The Daily Iowan have earned multiple honors and awards for their work throughout the years, placing the paper among the best in the country. The newspaper is an independent nonprofit organization that offers invaluable hands-on opportunities to students in the UI School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
“I’m still doing the same thing I was doing in Iowa City: getting those storytelling photos of fans crying when they get an autograph, following Kelsey Mitchell or Caitlin Clark down the court, and being ready for those special moments off of the court.”
Whether it be basketball, golf, football, or soccer, Smith says she is constantly scouting when she is on assignment.
“My head is always on a swivel,” she says. “I look for places I can go that will offer a creative angle or will look different than what everyone else is photographing. Maybe I’ll go in the stands for a little bit, or I’ll put the camera on the floor, or I’ll focus on the fans or the bench for half of a quarter. Photos of people going up for a basket look pretty similar, so I’m always looking for ways to get creative.”
An example is a photo she captured at the Masters of Hideki Matsuyama after he hit the ball. The golfer is facing Smith, and the ball can be seen in the air directly in front of his left eye.
“I noticed the background was really clean — he was below me with the fairway in the background — so I just pressed down the shutter and hoped the ball was in frame,” Smith says. “When I was looking back at my take to send to the editors, I saw it and said, ‘Heck yeah!’”
Smith wasn’t always a photographer. In high school, she helped her older brother, a film student, make movies and enjoyed being on set and working behind the scenes. When she decided to study cinema at Iowa, she researched what academic disciplines paired well with the major and discovered journalism. She applied to work at The Daily Iowan, hoping for a job at DITV, but was assigned to the photo team.
“My first year at Iowa was during COVID, and that’s when I learned a lot about how to use the camera. And then my sophomore year I became photo editor,” she says. “That’s when I was looking at everyone’s photos — and looking at my own in a new way — and I really started to fall in love with photojournalism.”
“As I look back, I really appreciate the little moments, even the long nights at The Daily Iowan. We would complain about them at the time, but in hindsight they were really fun. Everyone in the newsroom connected, and it was fun to be around like-minded people who love what they do.”
In particular, Smith says photojournalism classes with assistant professor Alex Scott and working with Jason Brummond, publisher of The Daily Iowan, and Danny Wilcox Frazier, director of the Daily Iowan Documentary Workshop, helped prepare her for the profession. She won a national award for general news photography in 2023 from the Society of Professional Journalists, but she says at times she still feels like an imposter.
“I think it’s kind of impossible not to have imposter syndrome, especially being so young in the industry. It’s hard not to compare yourself to others,” Smith says.
Brummond, a UI graduate who earned a BA and a BBA in 2008 and an MBA in 2014, says Smith is very deserving of her role in Indianapolis.
“Grace made the most of every opportunity she had at The Daily Iowan — and there were a lot of them, from our women’s basketball book and bowl games to long-form projects,” he says. “There isn’t a photojournalist in the country who covered Caitlin Clark like Grace did and with the access that she had. Grace is a phenom in her own right, and it’s not a surprise The Indianapolis Star would want her to continue to cover one of its biggest stories.”
Although documenting Clark, a two-time national player of the year, and putting together the UI women’s basketball book were significant highlights of her Iowa tenure, Smith says her favorite memories of campus are those she spent with her peers at The Daily Iowan.
“As I look back, I really appreciate the little moments, even the long nights at The Daily Iowan. We would complain about them at the time, but in hindsight they were really fun,” Smith says. “Everyone in the newsroom connected, and it was fun to be around like-minded people who love what they do.”
Smith’s dream assignment?
“Photographing the Olympics would be amazing,” she says. “I would love to travel somewhere new and work with a new group of people, and I enjoy high-pressure situations. It took me a couple days to get used to being at the Masters, but I think the more practice I get, the more prepared I’ll be for shooting the Olympics one day.”
