Better Than I Found It with Justin Hoch

Becoming/Unstuck

Justin Hoch has grown to orient himself toward leaving things better than he found them. One major way he has access to systemically living out this tenet on the level of society, is by sharing the experience of wrestling.

Justin started wrestling at 4 years old, and continued for 18 years, through a Division 1 program in College, after which he had a falling out with the sport. "Wrestling found [him] again" after a six year hiatus, through an NYC-based non-profit called Beat The Streets, which uses wrestling as a vehicle for change with struggling youth. Through that experience, Justin came to understand how wrestling supported his "development, worldview, ability and capability to exist as a human being" and how wrestling helped him with the process of becoming unstuck. He realized "if other people can have that experience too, then it would be good for them, and if they're then in society, then it's good for society."
Justin now uses photography journalistically and artistically on a micro level to "tell the story and the power of wrestling" and to "spread the good that wrestling can do". On a macro level, Justin uses his work to "pull people back to the middle" and to "find balance" within and across cultures. He wants his work to exhibit this statement: "If you think we're all different, let me show you the ways we're the same. If you think we're the same, let me show you the beautiful ways that we're different."
You can find all of Justin's work on his website: https://www.jhoch.com and you can find his love letter to wrestling, The Fire Inside on its own domain: https://fireinsideproject.com where I thought this profile was incredibly fitting for this episode: Alexandria Glaude