Landry Shamet has spent recent seasons proving he belongs in a New York Knicks rotation built around toughness and timely shooting. This offseason he has been proving something else: that a professional athlete can take a second craft just as seriously as the first.
The guard was spotted Tuesday night in the photo pit at Arthur Ashe Stadium during the U.S. Open quarterfinal between Jessica Pegula and Emma Navarro.
Credentialed photographers worked around him as he documented the match, a scene that would look ordinary if the person holding the camera were not an NBA player coming off a championship run.
Shamet’s interest in photography dates back about five years. What began as a hobby became a working relationship with the USTA in 2024, and he has returned to the tournament to shoot matches alongside professionals.
He has posted some of that work on Instagram and has used a Sony a7R V, a camera choice that signals he is not treating this as a casual pastime. USTA photographer Jen Pottheiser has praised the results, calling his action shots tremendous and describing him as a student of the form.
That second career sits alongside a basketball role the Knicks still value. After contributing to last season’s title, Shamet signed a four-year, $24 million deal to stay in New York.
In the 2025-26 regular season, he averaged 9.3 points and two made threes per game while shooting 39.2 percent from deep. In the playoffs he appeared in 19 games and averaged 6.0 points on 47.5 percent three-point shooting.
His most visible stretch came in the Eastern Conference finals against Cleveland, where he hit the tying three in Game 1 as the Knicks erased a 22-point fourth-quarter deficit and finished the series 11-for-12 from beyond the arc.
Those numbers explain why New York brought him back. He spaces the floor, defends within the team’s scheme, and has shown he can produce in high-leverage minutes.
They do not explain the hours he now spends behind a lens. Most players use the offseason to rest or refine their games. Shamet has used part of it to stand on the other side of the rope at a Grand Slam event, learning composition and timing from people whose full-time job is capturing sport rather than playing it.
The two worlds are not as far apart as they first appear. Both demand anticipation, patience, and the ability to stay composed when the moment arrives.
For now, the Knicks are preparing for another title push, and Shamet remains part of that plan.
Away from Madison Square Garden, he is quietly building a body of work that could outlast his playing days, one frame at a time.
