Dominique Oliveto is making waves in the world of sports marketing through innovative photography and filmmaking, framing athletes in ways that they have never been depicted before and partnering with such prolific brands as Nike and Under Armor and the WNBA, to name a few. Despite becoming an undeniably rising star in her industry, Oliveto didn’t intend to chart this path when she was a student at Slippery Rock University, but she equipped herself to navigate a successful media career.
Oliveto, ’11, now based in New York and working as a photographer, creative producer and filmmaker as owner of DMO Creative Studios, graduated from SRU with a degree in criminology and criminal justice and a minor in communications.
“I was going to go to law school,” Oliveto explained. “I took my LSAT and thought ‘I don’t want to do this at all.’”
Looking for her next step, Oliveto enrolled in a graduate program at Northeastern University that was centered around sports leadership and sport marketing. While there, her sports communication work began to include elements of storytelling, an emergent approach to athletic communications in the mid 2010s. It was through her time at Northeastern that Oliveto realized that this was where she was meant to be.
Oliveto distinguishes herself from other photographers and filmmakers in the world of sports in her depictions of athletes. Instead of focusing on an athlete as merely a brand or just a member of their team, Oliveto takes a multidimensional approach, portraying athletes as tastemakers, particularly as it pertains to increasingly visible female athletes.
“Everybody sees athletes and thinks being an athlete is the core of who they are, but I think showing these women as social influencers and fashionistas and artists and entrepreneurs is extremely important,” Oliveto said. “People often say that all that matters for an athlete is what they do on the court or on the field, but I choose to depict them as the amazing, multifaceted human beings that they are.”
This approach served Oliveto particularly well in her work with the WNBA, the popular women’s professional basketball league with perhaps the largest public footprint thanks to stars like Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark. Oliveto worked on the WNBA’s All-Star Showcase, spending several months generating creative ideas for photo projects. Oliveto was given high creative control, as well as the freedom to bring in her own team for the job. The results were a striking campaign that is distinctively Oliveto, showcasing the all-stars as more than the gifted athletes they’re known to be.
“Working with the all-stars was just such a great opportunity and it’s the work that I feel most proud of because I felt that I captured the essence of who these women are beyond the court,” Oliveto said.
Oliveto has a career that may seem like a dream, but she is adamant that every dream takes work.
“It’s easy to see something and think, ‘Wow, this is great,’ but you don’t necessarily see the million times someone hears ‘No’ before hearing ‘Yes,’” she explained. “I encourage people to continue putting themselves out there, make connections and knock on doors until they open.”
