Background
In 1959, at the age of 16, he shot his first roll of film at a professional football game with a camera his father bought him.
(For Iooss - whose efforts have graced the cover of "Sport...)
For Iooss - whose efforts have graced the cover of "Sports Illustrated" nearly 300 times - every picture really does tell a story. Here he highlights his favorites with behind-the-scenes anecdotes. For the famous "Blue Dunk" overhead shot of Michael Jordan taken in 1987, Iooss personally painted the parking lot, stationed himself in a cherry picker and waited for the shot. While shadowing "Tiger Woods" from hole to hole in Carlsbad in 2000, the photographer purposefully wore dark glasses the entire day so as to not look in the golfer's eyes. And in 2003, Iooss literally couldn't sleep the night before reuniting Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier for their first photo together in 30 years. In a lyrical display, we witness a creative evolution as Iooss continually discovers new ways and approaches to capture the athletic spirit. Iooss' passion, power and perspective are clearly at play in this artful package.
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In 1959, at the age of 16, he shot his first roll of film at a professional football game with a camera his father bought him.
The following year he attended the German School of Photography in New York City during the summer. One year later, at the age of 17 years, Walter got his first assignment from Sports Illustrated—-the same year he graduated from East Orange High School.
He has been called "the poet laureate of sports."
Iooss began his career shooting for Sports Illustrated and has contributed to the magazine for more than 50 years. He has also photographed for the magazine"s Swimsuit Issue for four decades. He is represented by Stockland Martel.
Born in Temple, Texas, Walter Iooss moved at the age of five from Temple to East Orange, New Jersey.
Two years later he shot his first cover for Sports Illustrated, but five more years would bring about a change of pace for Walter. Contrary to the sports images that he had been shooting, he then became an in-house photographer for Atlantic Records.
From 1968 through 1972, Iooss was an in-house photographer for Atlantic Records in New York, where his subjects included performers like James Brown, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. In 1982, Iooss was recruited by Fujifilm to work on an extended study of athletes who were working their way to the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Los Angeles
The two-and-a-half-year project required him to leave his position on the staff of Sports Illustrated (though he continued to contribute) and resulted in the publication of the book Shooting for the Gold.
In the late 1980s, Iooss was commissioned to photograph advertising campaigns for Camel cigarettes. In 1993, Iooss" work was featured on 27 baseball cards in an Upper Deck set dubbed "The Iooss Collection."
Though he has worked with athletes and models, Iooss has also photographed Cuban children playing ball in the street and captured the raw desire of Thai kickboxers. According to Iooss, "The real joy of photography is these moments.
I"m always looking for freedom, the search for the one-on-one.
That"s when your instincts come out."
Iooss" photographs have been exhibited most recently at the Newseum in Washington, District of Columbia, in a show titled "Athlete: The Sports Illustrated Photography of Walter Iooss," and at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles, in a show titled "SPORT: Iooss & Leifer."
Iooss is married to Eva Iooss, with whom he has two sons, Christian and Bjorn.
(For Iooss - whose efforts have graced the cover of "Sport...)
