Over his long career\, photograph er Walter Iooss Jr. had the opportunity to work with some of the greatest athletes of the past sixty years\, capturing on film carefully crafted mom ents of triumph and disappointment&mdash\;universal emotions that athletes and non-athletes alike know so well.
\nThe exhibit features athlete s auch as Muhammad Ali\, Michael Jordan\, Arnold Palmer\, Tiger Woods\, Se rena Williams\, and many more.
\nIooss was born in 1943 and shot his first roll of film in 1959\, at a New York Giants game with his father. O nly two years later\, he began working for &ldquo\;Sports Illustrated\,&rd quo\; landing his first cover in 1963\, when he was not yet twenty years o ld. He went on to become a prolific photographer for the magazine and phot ographed every Super Bowl from the first in 1967 through 2020\, and shot o ver three hundred covers. \;Assignments took him to Havana\, Bangkok a nd former East Germany.
\n&ldquo\;Over the course of his career with &lsquo\;Sports Illustrated\,&rsquo\; Iooss brilliantly photographed many of the greatest athletes of all time\,&rdquo\; said OKCMOA curator Bryn Sc hockmel\, PhD. &ldquo\;As an artist\, Iooss has created carefully composed portraits\, captured seemingly candid moments that were actually meticulo usly crafted\, and taken dramatic shots at the center of the action.&rdquo \; \;As such\, the exhibition includes some original copies of the mag azine featuring cover photos by Iooss alongside their companion original p hotographs\, allowing visitors to see the manner in which an image might b e altered for a magazine cover.
\nOther photographs included in the exhibition are professional portraits or works that were part of advertisi ng campaigns. In 1982\, Iooss was hired by Fuji Photo Film for a two-year project documenting American athletes as they prepared for\, and ultimatel y competed in\, the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles\; a number of photos from that project are included in the exhibition.
\nOf the m any relationships Iooss developed with the athletes he photographed\, one of the closest was with legendary basketball star Michael Jordan. Iooss sh ot Jordan dozens of times over many years\, and the pair collaborated on a book of photographs\, &ldquo\;Rare Air\,&rdquo\; in 1993.
\n&ldquo\ ;Iooss is a master at framing and discovering dynamic backdrops\, resultin g in visually intriguing compositions\,&rdquo\; continued Schockmel. &ldqu o\;In preparation for taking his iconic photo of Michael Jordan\, &lsquo\; The Blue Dunk\,&rsquo\; and not knowing the uniform color that Jordan woul d wear\, Iooss had a parking lot painted half blue and half red. Jordan ar rived in red and they shot against blue. A movable basketball net allowed Iooss to capture the perfect angle so that Jordan almost seems to be playi ng against his own shadow. It is carefully composed shots like these over the course of decades that have elevated Iooss to his legendary status as one of the best sports photographers in history.&rdquo\;
\nThis fami ly-friendly exhibit is organized into five sections that revolve around un iversal emotions: anticipation\, perseverance\, triumph\, disappointment a nd reflection. The sections allow for unique pairings and juxtapositions\, finding commonalities in photographs taken decades apart of very differen t sports and athletes. It also enables viewers\, regardless of if they hav e a background playing or watching sports\, to relate to the emotions seen in the photographs.
\nThe Perfect Shot \;is an adaptation of th e original retrospective exhibit organized by the Oklahoma City Museum of Art (OKCMOA) and is drawn from their permanent collection.
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