Walter Iooss Jr. is the man behind the lens of some of the most widespread and iconic sports photographs of all-time. Often dubbed the “poet laureate of sports,” his portfolio includes photos from a wide range of athletic pursuits including basketball, baseball, football, boxing, golf, surfing, tennis, and even Olympic sports. 

In 2004, he received the Lucie Lifetime Achievement Award and was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame, speaking to his cultural relevance and mainstream success in the sports world.

While growing up in East Orange, New Jersey, “sports were like therapy” to him, and they served as a way of coping with his parents’ divorce. Every night, a young Iooss would stay up and escape into the world of sports through the five-inch screen of his DuMont TV. While entranced in sports—on television or otherwise—he “always had a fixation with [athletic] form.”

Iooss’ passion for photography was ignited during his sophomore year of high school during a New York Giants game. He shot three to four frames on his father’s Aashi Pentax camera, and as he told Skylum, when he held the processed film up to the light “[his] future was unlocked. It was as if the path was already laid out for [him].”

16 year-old Iooss was hooked from that point on. He explained to Sports Illustrated (SI) that immediately, he “liked how life looked through that telephoto lens,” as it gave him the power to “choose what [he] wanted to see and eliminate the rest.”

In addition to spending his Sundays photographing New York Knicks, New York Jets, New York Yankees, and Philadelphia Phillies games with his father, he took photography fundamentals courses in his junior and senior years of high school and went on to attend the Germain School of Photography in New York.

By the age of 17—less than two years after starting photography—Iooss became a staff photographer for SI. Upon calling SI to discuss his portfolio of photos taken at the major league, the first question on the other end of the line was “You don’t have any nudes in it, do you?.”

He then began getting assignments, and he would travel to nearby NFL, NBA, and MLB games with the task of shooting the game in general or focusing on a specific player.

As for his experience as a young photographer working for a sports media giant, he and fellow teenaged SI photographer, Neil Leifer, were subject to a lot of judgement, and even resentment by other members of the press while shooting major league games.

“We were younger than the athletes,” he told PhotoInduced, “I often wondered, [when] other people saw us, what they thought of Sports Illustrated when they were hiring kids. [Leifer and I] were both teenagers covering the World Series.” 

Over the years, Iooss’ photos have been featured on the SI cover over 300 times, 10 of which being for the famous SI swimsuit issues. His first cover photo ran when he was only 20.

The Catch, one of Iooss’ most influential cover images, is a photo he describes as being “one of [those] moments that transcends sports.” It depicts San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Dwight Clark completing a touchdown pass from quarterback Joe Montana. This play secured the 49ers a 28-27 win against the Dallas Cowboys—the team that Iooss had spent that season shooting—with only 58 seconds left in the 1982 NFC Championship Game.

Iooss’ incredible ability to capture and convey motion, movement, and action through a still image is highlighted in this photo and its significance within football and sports photography as a whole.

His work also creates interest in every element of the frame, as shown in this untitled photo of Dodger Stadium through the simultaneous focus drawn to the sign of Dodgers catcher Mike Piazza, Cincinnati Reds pitcher Scott Service on the pitcher’s mound, as well as the sunset and palm trees in the background. Iooss claims that it took a couple of years to get this picture, as he “never caught it at the right time” that balanced the ambient and stadium lights.

“Over time, I think I got tired of just shooting games and action and began focusing on the broader context of sports: what’s going on around you? The bench, the walls, the fans. So I've concentrated on every aspect of sport,” Iooss explained to Skylum.

One of the collaborations that Iooss is most well-known for is his creative partnership with Michael Jordan during his prime in the 1990s. He describes Jordan as his “muse” and worked with the basketball icon on SI shoots, advertising campaigns, as well as two books, Rare Air and Athlete.

Iooss recalls the artistic freedom and status that his relationship with Jordan gave him, telling SI that “being with Michael [Jordan] was like travelling with Jesus. All the rules went out the window. Whatever I wanted, I could shoot.”

In July of 1987, the day after the pair met, Iooss would take one of his favourite photos of Jordan—The Blue Dunk. In preparation for the shoot, he had an adjustable NBA basket driven from St. Louis, Missouri to Lisle, Illinois, which ensured that Jordan wouldn’t have to continuously jump at full force.

With a vision in mind for the photo and an uncertainty as to which colour uniform Jordan would arrive wearing, he painted a parking lot half blue and half red. This image, along with Iooss’ process and attention to detail, serves as a great example of the emphasis placed on bold colours and high contrast within his work.

Another iconic photo of Jordan is MJ’s Endless Reflection, which was taken on a Chicago rooftop in 1991. The illusion of multiple figures was achieved by angling multiple four by eight foot mirrors “from straight at 90 degrees to down at 45 degrees”, as Iooss told Saturdays New York City.

Prior to the shoot in Chicago, Iooss had created this same setup in a parking lot near his house in Montauk, only to be stood up by the star for the first and only time. However, the clear sky on the day it was eventually shot helped further the impression of infinite reflections, speaking to the dynamic nature of his conceptual portraits.

Over the course of his career, Iooss has shifted from editorial sports event photography to portrait work of famous athletes. He described his creative fascination with athletes to SI, stating that he wants “to make athletes look strong and heroic like comic-book superheroes” rather than attempting to “humanize them”

On a trip to Southeast Asia in 1999 to photograph Thai kickboxers, Iooss found that there was a similarity between these athletes and the wealthy sports superstars he was used to shooting—they shared the essence of sports.

During that same year, he travelled to Havana, Cuba for a SI photo series of children playing sports, and would capture his all-time favourite photo—The Corner. Depicting a group of children playing stickball on a street corner with a ball made of tape, the photo embodies the joy of sport in Iooss’ eyes.

“In the millisecond when the ball is delivered, look at all these kids, and even the dog, with their eyes fixed on the pitch like it’s the only thing in the world. Nothing else matters,” Iooss told The Players Tribune. 

“To me, that’s sports in a single frame.”

Whether it’s through his dynamic images of celebrity athletes, or his photos of children simply enjoying a game of stickball, Walter Iooss Jr.’s work is able to capture and express the essence of sport, serving as iconic representations of modern sports culture.

‍All photos retrieved from Walter Iooss’ Jr’s online portfolio