You Know Who Shot It!: How Jordan Jimenez Became "Who Shot It"

"My message for photography is depicting life in a positive way and communicating that life maybe isn't so bad after all. One of my big goals for me as a photographer is to make an impact. Just leave the world a little bit better than how I found it, and that'll be the effect of the story." - Jordan Jimenez.

Anytime an incredible play happens during a Warriors game, fans on social media turn to one person hoping that they captured a photo of that great play. That person is freelance photographer Jordan Jimenez, better known as J Squared. When he does catch that incredible play, his hope to make an impact on others through his visuals of the game is consistently achieved. His pictures rack in thousands of likes and great reactions across all social media platforms every post.

From Andrew Wiggins' high school throwback poster on Luka Doncic to Stephen Curry pointing to the fan before a three-point shot went in against the Bulls, Jimenez has created some of the most iconic images from this Warriors' season.

It's become a joy for him to tell his childhood team's stories through photography and see the positivity his visuals have brought others. And while his photos have made a positive impact on both the athletes and the fans, his pictures relay a deeper meaning than the subjects in the image or the audience at hand.

"For me, it's a way of communicating all the messages I feel at a particular moment in time," Jimenez says. "As much as it's the story of all the athletes and the people around me, it's also my story."

The story of J Squared started in 2015 during Jimenez's senior year of high school at Archbishop Riordan in San Francisco. During his high school years, he had been a part of multiple extracurriculars, including participating in a band.

Even while being a part of these different groups and clubs throughout high school, he felt stuck– until he found photography.

"By the time 2015 came around, I figured I needed to do something new that's really gonna change my perspective on life," he says. "For whatever reason, I was drawn to a camera, and so I picked that up."

Like many beginning photographers, Jimenez started taking photos of friends, landscapes, and cityscapes– whatever was in his view. Again like many beginning photographers, he had no idea what he was doing with the camera at first. He was simply having fun with it, and that new fun with the camera allowed him to start seeing life in a completely new way.

Basketball was and always has been his first love. He played basketball his first two years at Riordan, home to one of the top boy's basketball programs in Northern California, but stopped playing after a severe injury. A year after he started to take pictures, his love for basketball began to come into play with his photography.

"I figured I love this thing that's photography; I love basketball, might as well combine the love for the two and let's see what it looks like if I start shooting games."

Jimenez would eventually begin shooting at elementary school games, workouts, and, as he says, "whatever he could get his hands on." He used these random games and workouts as an opportunity to get himself more familiarized with his camera.

As he learned to use his camera and used it more and more, his love for photography continuously built up for him. His most significant push to continue photography then wasn't about the possibilities of the incredible pictures he would soon start to take. It surrounded protecting his mental health.

"If I keep doing this, my mental health is going to be just a little bit better. You know what I mean?" he says. "If I keep doing this every day and keep looking at the minute details of everything, I'm really going to start seeing life in a different way and just see how beautiful it is…It just became a part of me."

A fun fact about Jimenez– he's never taken a photography course. When he attended the University of San Francisco, he studied Marketing. He wasn't doing anything art-related and initially saw himself going into business with the aspirations of working for a shoe company. After a year and a half at USF, Jimenez pulled the plug and decided to drop out. When he decided to leave school, he knew the "bet on yourself" mentality was the only mentality he could have.

"It's definitely one of those moments you have to have belief that you're going to succeed cause if you're just dropping out to drop out, it's like c'mon now, what are you doing, bro?" Jimenez says. "For me, I was very good at school. In high school, I had over a 4.0 GPA…so it came as kind of a shock when I finally decided to drop out."

The decision for a child to drop out of school for most parents would be a tormenting idea. After a serious conversation with his parents, Jimenez received the blessing from his parents to pursue his visual career. That faith and belief from his parents helped him begin the journey.  

"Once they saw how serious I was about it and saw how hard I worked, they knew they had to trust that I would keep working," he says. "They knew I was going to as well, and that made it a little bit easier for them."

Once it became a full-time commitment, it was all about hitting the ground running and grinding to become a better photographer for Jimenez. He started his freelance career with countless unpaid shoots– going to different high school and AAU basketball games and workouts. Just like when he started shooting sports, he tried to get his hands on events or games he could. More importantly, he valued the early connections that he built when starting his career.

His work began to get noticed through one of his early connections in his career, who Jimenez once looked up to and now considers like a brother, Devin Williams. And from that point on, his confidence continued to rise, and his determination to be great soared.

That determination and continuous shooting would eventually lead Jimenez to his first major shoot– Stephen Curry's Celebration of 10 years in Oakland by SLAM Magazine. To Jimenez, this was the moment he realized he's really doing this.

"In a way, that was kind of like my coming out party," Jimenez says. "I knew I was pretty decent with the camera, but sometimes people won't realize your work until it's someone of a higher status, and in some ways, that makes sense. Once people saw that I had Steph in front of the camera, that was really the game-changer."

It was just one dream checked off for Jimenez when he was invited to take photos for Steph. Being a Bay Area native and a lifelong Warriors fan, it was a surreal moment for him. After this shoot, JSquared became the newest upcoming star in the visual world of basketball.

The events began to line up for Jimenez. He would shoot some of the most prestigious events in high school basketball, including the McDonald's All American Game, The Steph Curry Select Camp, and the Ballislife All American Game. He continued to shoot high school basketball games around the Bay Area, began to shoot college basketball games, and eventually a few NBA games. More importantly, he continued shooting where he started; he shot at UP Basketball Training, where he would create another connection and friendship with Jordan Poole.

The relationship between Poole and Jimenez extends further than just a famous athlete hiring a personal photographer.

"I just introduced myself to Jordan [Poole] at the gym, and we just started talking about random stuff like video games, what we do on the weekends, it's just a bunch of random stuff," Jimenez says. "Me and him just became really good friends before we started working together, and it was about a year until we started working together for visuals."

This friendship with Poole for Jimenez would eventually take his career to new heights.

In an Instagram post of a photo of Steph Curry warming up back in 2018, Jimenez said in the caption– "would be a dream come true to shoot warrior games or at least one lol." Fast forward four years from the post, Jimenez has worked over 50 Warrior games in this past season alone.

"I forgot about that post. And there was a time when I wrote in my journal: "Goals for the year- shoot one NBA game." That really just puts everything into perspective," he emphasizes. "It's a blessing. Like I say, this is the dream. This is the team that I've always wanted to work for."

From unpaid shoots to shooting for your childhood NBA team, Jimenez's journey to this point in his career took countless hours of learning, countless hours in the gym, and a countless number of people. He follows two things when it comes to his work and building the relationships he's made.

"Putting out good work and being a nice person," he says. "Both of those are 1A and 1B. You have to put those together."

Creating these iconic images is more than just clicking a button as well.

"Depends what I'm trying to accomplish that game. If I'm looking for sequences, I'm taking close to 5,000 pictures a game. If I'm shooting for more precision and intentionality, I'm talking about 2,000."

On the basis of storytelling, there's a certain angle you must look for when developing the story you want to tell. The intentionality, the emotion, the perspective, and the thought process of developing these images to create the visual stories are constantly running through Jimenez when he's doing his work. He gives the credit of knowing what to shoot to his background of knowing basketball as well.

"When I'm shooting the game, I'm looking for obviously the action shots because that's the game, and that's what looks cool," he says. "But other than that, it's really about trying to find the emotion and look at the game within the game. Who's trash-talking each other? Who's having a good game? Who's emotional right now?".

If you were a coach, where are you looking for your players to attack? As a player, who's guarding me or who's hot on my team? Players and coaches constantly have to adjust to the game as it goes on. No matter how much film you watch, no matter how many sets you've practiced. A game can change in an instant; you have to adjust and bounce right back.  

It's a similar method for Jimenez shooting in the game. No matter how many photos he has taken this season, no matter how many new shots he has captured, the game can change in an instant. So for him to be able to bring the stories of the game to us, he's always having to learn, adapt, and execute behind the lens.

It just so happens that he does this already with near perfection. It's about hard work, and Jimenez credits Poole for his motivation to continue to work hard.

"I've always felt like I was the hardest working person I knew. I used to feel a little lonely because I wasn't the type of person to want to go out and hang out. I just wanted to continue to work on bettering my craft," Jimenez says. "When I met Jordan, it felt way less lonely just because I knew he was on the same exact energy. [Jordan] is probably the hardest working person I know, and if he's going to be on that level, I gotta stay up to par and be on the same level as him. And we've grown together from it since we met".

Jimenez is just 23 years old and is already working a dream career that some people may have strived for and never reached. By reaching this height in his career at such a young age, you may assume the possibility of a plateau in his work. But in fact, Jimenez is just getting started. Technology is continuously improving, new ways of creating a visual story are continually being developed, and in today's day in age with social media and technology, the way one, especially Jimenez, can tell a story is endless.  

Jimenez has counted his blessings since the start of his career and has always been grateful for his opportunities. Just alone this season, as he stated, he's gotten to work his dream job. When the season is over, he's looking forward to soaking in everything that has happened over the last seven months or so, but not for very long.

"I know once the season's done, it's really going to hit me like, "Damn, we really did all that" because it's been a whole season of just so many interesting stories and meeting so many different people. Once it all settles in it's gonna be a crazy feeling," he says. "And then after that, it's onto the next thing. What's the next thing?"

This past year is a testament to his hard work over the seven-year journey since he picked up a camera. It's a testament to his mindset and his perseverance as a storyteller. Once his career is all set and done, he's got one last goal to accomplish, and he might well be on his way to that goal already.

"I've always approached it like I'm really going to do my best to be the greatest. I'm trying to be one of the best to ever do it," Jimenez says. "That's always been one of my biggest goals."

You can follow Jordan Jimenez on Instagram (@__jsquared) and Twitter (@_jordanjimenez) to follow his journey and the stories he tells.