JEFF LEWIS
What makes a sports photographer great? A love of both sports and photography, for starters. Renowned sports photographer Jeff Lewis is a lifelong sports fan (especially football) and has loved photography since boyhood. His myriad accomplishments include being an Associated Press photographer since 2005, shooting the World Series, NBA Playoffs, and countless important pro football games and other events for the AP. He was also a floor photographer for the Lakers from 2005 to 2015, has been a Rams photographer since 2016, and is an official photographer for SoFi Stadium, home of the Rams and the Chargers. His first dream was to become a football player, so he joined West L.A. College’s football team and played wide receiver. As fate would have it, Keshawn Johnson was the other wide receiver. It was while watching and playing alongside Keshawn that Jeff had a life-changing realization: “The only way I was ever going to get on an NFL playing field was as a photographer!” Photography came naturally to Jeff. Studying art and photography in college gave him the knowledge and background he needed to develop a mastery of light and composition. Over time, he also developed a signature stance—shooting the players from his knees. “When you shoot a superhero,” he explains, “they are larger than life. And when you are shooting up at them, you bring their actions to life.” Jeff has photographed twelve of the past thirteen Super Bowls, missing only the pandemic-year game (which no one attended). This past year, Jeff won a Hall of Fame Award for a photo he took of Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf scoring a touchdown against the Chicago Bears.
Being a former football player himself, Jeff Lewis has an uncanny ability to anticipate the action of the game and run to the area where he senses an important moment about to occur. In the 2022 Super Bowl, he did just that. He ran to the end zone area, having sensed that Stafford was going to throw the game-winning touchdown pass to Cooper Kupp, who was waiting in the end zone. This was an incredible sequence.
They say that fortune favors the brave, and Jeff Lewis is a living example of this adage. His consistently extraordinary work in the world of sports photography often puts him in the right place at just the right time. One of these charmed incidents happened in the summer of 1996 when the late Kobe Bryant—near the top of a short list of the greatest players to ever play the game of basketball—flew into Los Angeles to sign his first contract as a Laker. Around midnight on his first day in town, a limousine pulled up in front of Roscoe’s House of Chicken ‘n Waffles and out jumped Kobe, looking for a late snack. Jeff happened to be there and recognized Kobe. When Jeff said hello, Kobe warmly shook his hand. Over the years, Jeff took thousands of photos of Kobe. The one memory Jeff considers the most meaningful of all took place in the fall of 2018 when Mamba Sports Academy invited him to come in for a photography session with Kobe. Toward the end of that day, a chair for Kobe and a gray backdrop was set up for a final photo. Neither Kobe nor Jeff liked the backdrop. So, Jeff moved the lighting and changed the backdrop to create a more dynamic image. He then caught Kobe staring directly at him. Jeff captured the intensity and focus of Kobe in a portrait that takes your breath away—a photo that took on even greater weight after the basketball great’s untimely and tragic death. That was the last and best photo that Jeff ever took of Kobe Bryant.
Jeff took many shots of the incredible Utah-USC game, but one really exemplified the game. It was a photo of a player standing in the crowd, holding up his helmet. Jeff titled the shot Victory, saying, “It really exemplified the game.”
No matter what opposing team they might be facing on the field, you can always count on The Utah Utes to bring genuine, undeniable passion and fervor to the game. And no matter what game Jeff Lewis is photographing, you can always count on world-class photos. He notes, “I love feeling at one with the players I’m photographing and getting lost in a sea of red uniforms. And when the final whistle blows, I sometimes run out onto the field with the fans and the players. It’s a great feeling, being around all that energy.”
Jeff Lewis is a world-class photographer at the top of his game, and we are honored to be partnering with him in this endeavor.
~ Angel Rivas, University Sports Art General Manager
