Bill Sumner Interview
© NIKE Inc .
When did you first photograph Michael Jordan ?
That was when he was still in college . That ’ s how far back that one goes . He really couldn ’ t do much then because it was the NCAA . That ’ s when we started the guerilla shooting because Peter Moore loved that kind of stuff . We would just go out in the afternoon and drive around until we found a few locations we liked and then we ’ d go back there later and shoot with the athlete . I forget where that blue wall was , but it was on campus . Maybe it was a backboard for tennis or something like that . We did shoot a few other things there with him , but I really don ’ t know where they are . I ’ ve got boxes in my attic that I have to get to . There ’ s a bunch of other old film up there but I need to dig through it .
Is the famous Air Jordan “ Jumpman ” logo image yours ?
No . That was another guy who shot that on an outdoor basketball court up in Chicago . They asked me to do one similar to it though for the cover of a catalogue . We went up to Chicago and found a gym that we had to ourselves , and [ Jordan ] did a bunch of similar jumps . They did a bunch of different things with that shoot like crop him onto a white background and up in the clouds and things like that . There ’ s a bunch of fashion-oriented stuff I shot with him because Jordan was doing the catalogues pretty early on . Mostly Nike wanted me to do stuff they could turn into posters , but that doesn ’ t mean the stuff didn ’ t end up going somewhere else , too .
Nike doesn ’ t make them anymore , but do you think kids would buy posters of today ’ s athletes ?
The concept of the poster is gone , although there is still such a thing as wall space . Nike never intended to make money by selling posters . All they wanted to do is get the kid ’ s hero on his wall wearing Nike shoes . I think the idea would still work . Now , obviously , the kids are all online and I understand that , but the bedroom wall space has not gone away . I still think it ’ s a good market to get the shoes in front of the buyers , the mothers and fathers . They ’ re the financiers , after all .
Do you still keep in contact with Nike ?
There ’ s a group at Nike in the archive . Did you know there ’ s a whole Nike archive online ? You ’ d flip on that one . ( Laughs ) The site is so full of Nike history that you would just die . I can also tell you that you can ’ t have access to it . But it has everything . I haven ’ t been to Beaverton in a long time , but now they have a whole Nike museum . I can only imagine what ’ s in there , but I ’ m sure it would be a lot of fun to go through it .
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