THE JOURNAL
3 MINUTE READ
Five Iconic Images Of Mr Michael Jordan (And The Stories Behind Them)
Words by Mr Walter Iooss
25 August 2020
The spectator sports we know and love are by nature fluid, with narratives unfolding over hours, months, even years. But the moments we tend to remember are just that, instantaneous flashes of brilliance, a tick of the clock, a shot at the buzzer. And no one has captured these moments more memorably in a still frame than the photographer Mr Walter Iooss, whose new collection of prints with Sonic Editions celebrates his decades-long relationship with a GOAT of a different sort (greatest of all time, for the uninitiated), his Airness himself, Mr Michael Jordan. In these five frames, available exclusively on MR PORTER, Mr Iooss catches Mr Jordan on tour with The Dream Team, on his way to superstardom and, expectedly, in full mid-air majesty. Here, the photographer talks us through five of his captures.
01.
“That’s for the cover of Time magazine. We put a huge gel on the wall behind, because it was such a hideous gym. We lit him and he tried to create something. It was a tough space. And then there was the negotiation of how many dunks. I’d say, ‘We’re going to do 10, right?’ He said, ‘10? What are you, out of your mind? Three.’ It’s always a game. But he’s just such a pro, engaging with everyone he has to engage with. Everyone wanted to be with him.”
02.
“Salt Lake. That was a special moment. You knew that was it. That’s the most I featured in his documentary [The Last Dance]. In this moment there, you see me sitting at his feet looking up at Michael like he’s biblical, which he kind of is. I couldn’t get a better smile than that. That was pure joy. And there were a lot of people in there; I wasn’t the only photographer. There was the NBA crew, there were friends of his. So, he was hamming it up – not that he could play the piano. [To capture moments like these] you want to be close. You don’t want anyone in your way. So you get a prime spot and, I mean, everyone knew I’d spent a lot of time with Michael. So, I think he worked it out.”
03.
“What makes the moment interesting is the light – the single strobe effect. I set up one strobe in one end of the court and one at the other, depending which way he was playing, the first half or second half. It doesn’t work on all shots but because the rest of the arena is such low light, it makes it dramatic.”
04.
“This was an ad job, in Chicago. And there were so many people that came that I got yellow police tape and cordoned off our area. So, the only person speaking to Michael is me. Everything goes through me. I remember I had four hours. But he walked past me, and said, ‘Walter, get off the phone. We’re going to do this in an hour.’ I said, ‘Michael, we can’t. We’ve got clients here.’ ‘Walter, you can do it.’ It’s just the way it was. And, I mean, it’s just one of those moments that he makes look so beautiful. That’s why he was Michael. You couldn’t go wrong with him. And he didn’t have to dunk. So, he enjoyed it.”
05.
“Here we are preceding The Dream Team, so, 1992. It wasn’t digital back then. You would take a Polaroid and you’d talk: I want more arm, say, or leg… and then, you just shot. You changed your roll of film and you went on. I mean, he’s only going to do it so much.”
