Neil Leifer

     Neil Leifer is regarded as one of the greatest sports photographers of all time. He was born December 28th, 1942 and is still alive today. Leifer would gain access to baseball games as a young boy in New York by wheeling handicapped people into the stadium. He would do this so he could photograph the players alongside the professional photographers with a free ticket. He became known as a "boy wonder" among those working at Sports Illustrated, and had his first cover by age 19 in 1962. He now has over 170 covers of the magazine under his belt. Leifer didn't just work for Sports Illustrated, however. He has published photos in Time, published several books, and is now creating films of his own. He has mostly retired from sports photography with the exception of boxing.

     Neil Leifer's claim to fame is on the surface his career with Time and Sports Illustrated, but there's more. Leifer has a very distinct style. He doesn't leave art and creativity behind when he photographs sports. My favorite photo of his is this one.

 This photo is Muhammad Ali and Cleveland Williams in their fight in 1966. I love the way he frames his photo here, and the risky creativity of putting a camera in the rafters. His style really showcases the emotion present in sports. All too often when we photograph sports, all we want to see is action, action, action. In this photo, there is very little action, but the essence, the victory, the defeat, the core of the sport is revealed very easily and simply, in an actually very complex photo. Most people who don't like to watch sports don't like to watch them because they're "boring", I think it's because we often remove the humanity from them, which Leifer has been chasing in every single photo.  You can find the photo above, and many more here.




Works Cited:




http://rarehistoricalphotos.com/muhammad-ali-knocks-cleveland-williams-astrodome-houston-1966/

Jump up^ Muhammad Ali – 25 of the best photographs of the legendary boxer, theguardian.com.

 
Jump up^ http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0201/nl01.htm 

Jump up^ http://www.athlonsports.com/nfl/5-conspiracy-theories-changed-sports-history 

Jump up^ "Strip Tease: An introduction to the strip camera, how Tom Dahlin made his, and how you can too.", Tom Dahlin, SportsShooter, 2008-08-18