PICTURE PERFECT
The best sports photos stand the test of time
Reading is a wonderful gift. The written word takes us places we have never been and will never go. It reaches back to capture history and fast-forwards to catapult us into a future we never saw coming. It amuses us. Amazes us. Analyzes us. Amplifies us.
Obviously, I'm a big believer in the power and poetry of the pen, er, keystroke.
But visual words — pictures and photographs — equally bless and blow us away. They capture moments in time, in many cases better than stories can, because seeing a sunset typically impacts our emotions more than reading about it later. Photos also provide a clear window into current culture.
I thought about optical journalism last week, specifically involving sports, after seeing a photograph of Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods standing together on the Swilcan Bridge on the 18th hole of the Old Course at St. Andrews.
It was a lovely shot of two iconic golfers. But was the photograph iconic? The headline said so, but most readers likely passed over the “iconic” part because of what preceded it:
“Tiger Woods accidentally stands on Jack Nicklaus' foot in iconic photo.”
Forgetting for a moment my eye roll over the attention-grabbing headline, which focused on two feet and not 33 feats — the combined number of majors won by Nicklaus and Tiger — still leaves the question of whether the photograph is iconic.
Easy answer: no. If in 30 years the photo is famous mostly for Tiger barely pressing upon the Bear's paw, I will eat my hat (you'll likely need to cut it for me).
Put another way, “Jack's Foot” doesn't carry the same iconic weight as “The Catch,” the famous shot by Walter Iooss Jr. that captured San Francisco 49ers receiver Dwight Clark's leaping touchdown grab against Dallas in the 1982 NFC Championship game.
The Catch is iconic, as are dozens of other photos through the decades that elicit oohs and ahs and a realization that “Oh, yes, I've seen that picture!” There is the shot of a jawing Muhammad Ali standing over a defeated Sonny Liston during a 1965 heavyweight rematch, shot by Neil Leifer. And Michael Jordan soaring during the 1988 NBA slam dunk contest, also shot by Iooss Jr. (Jordan has been featured in several iconic photos, including The Shot, The Shrug and a picture of him hugging the trophy after winning his first NBA title in 1991).
There is the Iooss Jr. photo of a shirtless Joe Namath lounging in his bathing suit by the pool, surrounded by media, and Heinz Kluetmeier's photo of the 1980 U.S. men's hockey team celebrating the Miracle on Ice. Even more iconic: Ray Lussier's snapshot of Bobby Orr's leap after the Boston legend scored the gamewinner 40 seconds into overtime of Game 4 of the 1970 Stanley Cup final against St. Louis .
There are so many others, including Jack Nicklaus raising his putter at the 1986 Masters, Willie Mays robbing Vic Wertz of extra bases in the 1954 World Series, Brandi Chastain sliding in her sports bra after winning the 1999 World Cup and Wilt Chamberlain posing with the “100” sign after reaching the century mark in points against the New York Knicks in 1962. There is Secretariat jockey Ron Turcotte glancing over his shoulder during the Belmont to see no horse within 30 lengths and Baltimore running back Alan Ameche scoring in the 1958 NFL Championship game.
The best sports photos put you on the field, in the dugout and at the track, but to qualify as iconic they must stand the test of time.
“For me, there are memorable moments and then there are iconic photos,” said Elsa Garrison, who for 26 years has shot photos for Getty Images. “Sure Tiger
Woods and Jack Nicklaus are two iconic figures, and maybe this (St. Andrews) picture will become iconic down the road, but there's a difference between iconic and memorable.”
Garrison's most famous photo might be Chicago Cubs fan Steve Bartman leaning over the railing trying to snag a foul ball that Cubs outfielder Moises Alou was trying to catch in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series. The shot captured the controversial play perfectly.
“People have different ideas of what makes an iconic photo,” she said.
“There's one philosophy that it's about the gravity of events, and you captured the moment. Also no one else has it. That adds to it. There's the idea of the photo being unique, which is harder in today's world because there are a lot of photographers doing that work.”
Look around. Or down. That handheld device doubles as a camera that chronicles everything from celebrity selfies to winning baskets.
“Everyone has a camera now, but that doesn't make you a photographer,” Iooss Jr. said. “Someone might get a good shot, but is it going to be on the cover of a mag
azine?”
Iooss Jr. doesn't doubt that many of today's photos are good enough to become iconic, but insisted that few will attain such status because they lack a wide landing pad to attract a large audience.
“My No. 1 take is the publishing business is dead,” he said, explaining that decades ago photos appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated and ended up framed or taped to the bedroom walls of millions of young fans.
“People saw the photographs,” he said. “And there's also the fact that nobody is assigning these great shoots anymore.”
Leifer lamented the Woods-nicklaus headline, then suggested how to predict if a photo might become iconic.
“An iconic photograph is one that should never need a caption,” he said. “Iwo Jima is iconic. The people jumping out of the 102nd floor of the World Trade Center is iconic.”
And Ali-liston is iconic, but not necessarily because it was the perfect shot.
“I always say about the Ali-liston photo, were that instead a preliminary fight, people would have said, ‘Nice knockout picture,' and that would have been it. But Ali made it famous. As his legend grew, as he became an iconic figure, that photo became more important.”
Sadly, those types of iconic photos are fading. Fortunately, you can still find them online. Do yourself a favor and get to it. roller@dispatch.com @rollercd