Walter Iooss

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Walter Iooss Jr. (born 1943) has been a professional photographer since the age of 19. He is best known for his work with Sports Illustrated magazine (including nearly 300 cover photographs) and for his portraits of famous athletes like Michael Jordan, Cal Ripken, Jr. and Ken Griffey, Jr.

Iooss (pronounced "yoce", IPA: [jos]) was born in Temple, Texas, but moved to East Orange, New Jersey at age five. As a child, he was consumed with sports and with the athletes who played them. His first photo assignments revolved around sports. His first formal photographic training was an accelerated fundamentals course at Germain School of Photography in New York City while he was still in high school. He soon began contributing to Sports Illustrated and earned his first cover at age 20 with a picture of Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Art Mahaffey.

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 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."

Though he has worked with the most renowned athletes and models of his time, Iooss' greatest reward has always come from assignments like photographing Cuban kids playing ball in the street only for the love of the game, or capturing the raw desire of Thai kickboxers unaffected by money or fame. 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."

[edit] References

Drumm, Russell (1999). Still Magic. Walter Iooss: A Lifetime Shooting Sports & Beauty. Graphis Press. ISBN 1-888001-56-9.
Skinner, Peter (December, 2003). Profile: Walter Iooss, The Doyen of Sports Photographers. Rangefinder Magazine.