"More than a Moment" by Andrew Nash

Walter Iooss Jr. contributed to Sports Illustrated for more than 50 years. In the lead-up to the 1984 Summer Olympics, he was given unprecedented access to athletes for two years for a book of photography on the Olympians.

A photo shoot with Greg Louganis, who would go on to win two gold medals at both the 1984 and 1988 Olympics, would lead to a revelation for Iooss. Everything lined up just right for a photo that, to this day, is among the first on Iooss’s website.

“I was moving the camera so quickly that it was taking the red of the sky and swirling it. It looked like the flames of hell coming out of the pool. I was very excited about this shot,” said Iooss in an interview, adding that it was like God jumped in your camera for one picture and said, ‘OK, this is it.’”

Proud of his shot, Iooss went to Louganis and asked his opinion. He didn’t get the response he expected. 

“He takes one look at it, hands the picture back to me and goes, ‘I’m bent.’ I said, ‘Excuse me?’ He says, ‘I’m bent. Look at me. I’m crooked.’ And he walks out,” Iooss said. 

That moment taught Iooss that we all see something different in a photograph.

What is a photograph but a moment captured? How often do we find ourselves either overly confident in the moment, like Iooss was, or too frustrated in the moment?

The Bible is full of moments in which a person at the center of the story does not see the moment from a different point of view.

Peter was desperate to protect Jesus from being arrested. Sensing “the moment,” he used a sword to cut off the servant of the high priest’s ear. Jesus, however, was not there for a fight, and Peter had read the moment wrong.

Both Iooss and Peter thought they had done the right thing. There is a difference between Iooss and Peter, however: Iooss asked for someone else’s view, while Peter did not. Other people have plenty to teach us even when we think we’re right.