Photographer of The Week

Walter Iooss Jr is known to be one of the most influential photographers in all of sports photography. His brilliance in use of color, light and shadow contributed to his beautiful work, but his amazing use of background made him stand out from the rest in my opinion. Growing up, Walter was always involved in sports. Born into a family of huge sports fans. At the age of 15 Walter's father had gifted him a camera and he immediately fell in love with photography. Shortly after, just a year later Walter had begun showing interest in photography at professional football games. His career as a photographer really got started after his first assignment at the age of 17 by Sports Illustrated. Straight out of graduating high school Walter was on a clear path to become a great sports photographer.

One of Walters biggest career accomplishments as a photographer has been done through Sports Illustrated Magazine. Throughout a 50 year career with Sports Illustrated, Walter has the most ever featured photos in the sports magazine at around 300 photos! In 1999 Walter was awarded 2nd place in the Photo of The Year, Magazine division, Portrait in Personality. Walter was also given The Lucie Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004. In 2018 Walter was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame. Walter has even gone on to publish a book titled “Athlete” with an introduction with Michael Jordan.  

Some of the names of tremendous athletes Iooss had the opportunity to shoot for are names such as Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Cristiano Ronaldo, Michael Phelps, Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, and Kobe Bryant. But he is best known for his work with Michael Jordan. Iooss is also very well known for his time in the NFL, shooting at all of the first 52 Super Bowls. Arguably his most iconic shot being “The Catch '' of Dwight Clark to send the 49ers to the Super Bowl over America's team, the Dallas Cowboys. The beginning of one of the most dominant football franchises of all time.  

The reason that Walter's photo  “‘The Slam Dunk’ Michael Jordan 1988” stood out to me was because I believe that it shows how great of a photographer Iooss truly is. The background is absolutely unbelievable and it’s what makes this photo so great. The light shining on Michael, the color of the court, the color of the scoreboard. It all ties in together beautifully and is what I believe sports photography is all about.

References 

Walter Iooss. (2022, April 26). Retrieved November 18, 2022, from https://iphf.org/inductees/walter-iooss-jr/

Walter Iooss Jr.. (n.d.). Retrieved November 18, 2022, from https://www.walteriooss.com/