Muhammad Ali – through the eyes of the photographers who know him best
The unforgettable
Think of a photograph of #Muhammad_Ali besides those pictured above … I suspect there’s a good chance you thought of that wonderful shot of Ali towering over Sonny Liston in the first round of their heavyweight title fight in 1965, where Ali, visibly irate, is beckoning his opponent up from the canvas with a digger-like swing of his right arm. If not, then you doubtless know the photograph I’m talking about: it’s that famous.
If that wasn’t the first image to spring to mind, then maybe it was the shot of him fooling around with the Beatles in his gym, pretending to land one punch that would knock the Fab Four out like dominoes, or the image of him posed serenely underwater, as if conducting a surreal training session at the foot of a swimming pool. Or maybe it was another? There are, after all, myriad unforgettable photographs of Ali in the archives.
Ali, says Neil Leifer, the man who shot that celebrated photograph of him berating Liston, was “a gift” to anyone with a camera. “I have spent over 50 years of my life shooting photographs. I photographed everybody from the Pope to Charles Manson. But there has never been a better subject than Muhammad Ali,” he says.
▻http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/oct/30/-sp-muhammad-ali-through-the-eyes-of-the-photographers-who-know-him-bes
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