Neil Leifer

 

Over the last few years,  I have fell in love with the sport of boxing and have merged my love of it with the art of photography. However, when seeking inspiration for a shoot, I have never searched  for people who are sports photographers, but rather did very refined google searches. I decided to look into sports photographers as well as photographers who were famous for their work of boxers. I came across the image taken by Neil Leifer. During his career, he took many photos of the world renowned boxers Muhammad Ali. I found this image of his to be very powerful because of the angle in which it was captured. His opponent is laying flat on ground, almost lifeless.  From looking at Ali, you can see the strong stance that he holds and you can feel the sense of victory from the way he holds himself. However, you cannot see his face which leaves a sense of mystery to the image as to how much damage was done during the fight. But the from knowing the description of the image, it only took 3 rounds until he knocked him out. That is a rather fast period of time to defeat someone in a fight. I think the shadows and lighting in the shot also mean something in the image in that they were not present the image would be very different.  The ref standing over his opponent also allows the viewer to know the fight is done. Every detail in this image brings it together to make stronger. There are ways in which a photographer could’ve edited this image for it to appear different. However, given the time period of 1966 there were many softwares that were not invented yet. This image was one that could’ve only been taken in the perfect moment.