WALTER IOOSS
"I’ve always felt the moment. People call me lucky, and luck is a wonderful attribute. But it's more - it’s a sense somehow. It’s inexplicable, it happens. It’s a feeling and you just move into that direction. Someone once said that wherever I am is the perfect picture. I didn't like the way it sounded but I believe that. It’s not that I'm positive of it deep down inside, it’s that I have to believe it. When you make that decision - "This is the place to go’- you've got to live with it. There’s no alternative." - Walter Iooss
Walter Iooss is best known for his nearly 300 Sports Illustrated covers, as well as his portraits of famous athletes like Michael Jordan, Ken Griffey, Jr., Brett
Favre, Joe Montana and Wayne Gretzky. In his career, he has covered virtually every major sports event, including all 43 Super Bowls. Iooss also photographed performers like the Rolling Stones, James Brown, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin while he was an in-house photographer for Atlantic Records.
Iooss’ passion for the spirit of sport has taken him to remote locations around the world to document surfers in the South Pacific, kick boxers in Thailand and kids playing stickball in the streets of Cuba.
In 1982, his project on athletes working their way to the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles resulted in publication of the book, Shooting for the Gold. He has published a number of other books, including Baseball, Football and Sports People, and created a masterful photo essay with Michael Jordan, Rare Air, which topped The New York Times Best Sellers list. His latest work, Athlete, was released in May 2008, and marks his 14th book.
In 2004, Iooss received the Lucie Award for lifetime achievement in Sports Photography.