The story behind the viral photo of Rob Phinisee amid a sea of IU basketball fans
BLOOMINGTON — The photographers met at halftime, just to be ready.
IU was leading No. 4 Purdue in raucous Assembly Hall and maybe, just maybe, a storming of the court was brewing. If IU held on, they knew it was coming.
They had to be in place for the perfect photo to capture the potential moment.
Andrew Mascharka, the director of photography for IU’s Mark Cuban Center for Sports Media and Technology, met with his two interns — Xavier Daniels and Gracie Farrall. Mascharka and Daniels would be on the floor, be the first ones on the court if the students came charging down.
Doyel:Assembly Hall had waited for a moment like this. And Rob Phinisee made it happen.
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With 2:00 minutes to go, Mascharka told them they all needed to be in position.
Farrall is a junior at IU and is the third photographer with the Cuban Center. That means her job isn’t on the floor. Instead, she roams around the building and takes the fan shots that are blasted across IU’s social media. If any important IU figures such as President Pamela Whitten are there, or a celebrity such as IU basketball legend Isiah Thomas, Farrall is taking their photo.
So her assignment in this boisterous crowd was to be on the balcony with two minutes to go, Section KK to be exact. With 56 seconds to go, Farrall was positioned on the edge of the balcony, waiting.
The next minutes came through the eyes of her lens, capturing a bird’s eye view of Assembly Hall.
“I’m focusing on Rob,” Farrall said. “We knew Rob was going to be the person to follow.”
The final buzzer sounded on IU’s win and Farrall’s camera locked onto Phinisee. Through her lens she saw Trayce Jackson-Davis high five Anthony Leal, and saw Phinisee dart toward the scorer’s table before diving back into the fray.
Farrall kept following, watching for the hero hidden in the crowd when suddenly, he popped up, raised high on the shoulders of Trayce Jackson-Davis.
She saw Phinisee above the crowd, but hardly had time to realize the scene. Her finger was slammed down on the shutter. Getting as many photos as she could and hoping at least one would be the shot.
“At that moment, I was just shooting,” Farrall said. “There was no time for looking at my the back of my screen -- it was just finger down, get what I can and make sure it's in focus.”
So it wasn’t until she was running down the stairs to the photo room before she actually saw the shot. The Shot. The one of Rob Phinisee yelling, his arms outstretched. With students' arms raised toward him, and their phones out capturing the moment. Phinisee, the hero, in the middle of the sea of screaming students celebrating his moment.
Farrall knew that was the shot. Next was the scramble to get it posted. There was hardly time to edit, but the shot didn’t need much editing.
But the power of the image didn’t hit her until it hit the internet.
Her dad posted it first. And soon the Martha the Mop Lady account promoted the image. That’s when it really took off, Farrall said.
Soon her inbox was flooded by people telling her how incredible her image was. Dozens asked to buy it — they wanted to hang it in their basements.
In the 24 hours after the storm, Farrall heard from mentors, congratulating her on the photo.
“This photo is iconic,” one of Farrall’s former bosses texted her.
Users on Twitter have described the image as iconic, too. Some have written that it's among the best photos in IU history.
“It’s been so emotional in the best possible way,” Farrall said. “I cried last night. It’s been incredible. People are very kind. They’ve been saying nice things on Twitter and Instagram.”
Farrall said she felt a new positive energy in Bloomington when she went to Bloomington Bagel Company on her way to work Friday morning, and that same energy in the Assembly Hall offices.
She sat down to work on her final edits from the night before, and teared up one more time.