Muhammad Ali was not just one of the greatest ever boxers. He was a media-savvy cultural icon who is part of the history of photography. On what would've have been his 75th birthday, we look at Ali as a photo muse.
Image: Thomas Hoepker
Advertisement
Muhammad Ali: Portraits of a master
Muhammad Ali has passed away at the age of 74. In 2015, a Berlin gallery hosted an exhibition featuring photos of the boxing legend. The portraits capture a superstar at the height of his prowess.
Image: Thomas Hoepker
Larger than life
From August 15 to October 10, 2015, the Camera Work gallery in Berlin exhibited some of the most arresting images of a man who deserved the title superhero. This picture of Muhammad Ali was taken in Chicago in 1966 by German Thomas Hoepker, one of Ali's favorite photographers.
Image: Thomas Hoepker
The martyrdom of Muhammad
Carl Fischer created this image of Ali in 1967 for the cover of "Esquire" magazine. It's based on the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian motif from Italian renaissance painting. In 1967, with the Vietnam war raging, Ali refused to be drafted into the US Army, saying "No Viet Cong ever called me nigger." For that, he was chastised by parts of mainstream white America.
Image: Carl Fischer
Pop punch
In 1964, Harry Benson photographed Cassius Clay, as Ali was still known, meeting The Beatles in Miami. Even early on it was clear that the boxer's stardom would transcend sports. Ali arguably became boxing's first pop icon. Here he is taking out all of the Fab Four with one playful blow.
Image: Harry Benson
In the ring
This is arguably the most famous image of Ali ever taken in the ring, showing him just after knocking out Sonny Liston in Lewiston, Maine in 1965 in the second bout between the two fighters. Neil Leifer was the photographer in the right place at the right time, and captured Ali's ferocious side.
Image: Neil Leifer
Power of prayer
Cassius Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali upon coverting to Islam in 1965. In the late 1960s, he was associated with civil rights leaders such as Malcolm X and was always very public about his faith. Thomas Hoepker took this picture of Ali praying in the ring in London in 1966.
Image: Thomas Hoepker
The show must go on
Ali never missed an opportunity to play to a crowd, and even his training sessions were public events attracting adoring spectators. Peter Angelo Simon snapped this image of Ali skipping rope in 1974. That year, Ali defeated George Foreman to regain the heavyweight title in one of the greatest fights ever, known as "the Rumble in the Jungle."
Image: Peter Angelo Simon
Picture perfect
After "greatest," one of Ali's favorite adjectives to describe himself was"pretty." He never tired of pointing out that his face did not bear the signs of damage that those of lesser boxers did. Much of his vanity was play-acted, but his appearance was undeniably important to Ali. Thomas Hoepker took this shot of him in a Chicago barber shop.
Image: Thomas Hoepker
Blood, sweat and tears
Especially early in his career, Ali made things look easy in the ring, but his remarkable skills were the result of long hours put in at the gym. This Image, shot by Thomas Hoepker in Chicago in 1966, not only conveys some of the history of the sport but also suggest the solitary hours Ali put in to become the best in his game.
Image: Thomas Hoepker
Master at work
The exhibition "Muhammad Ali" made clear that the boxer was very much in control during photo shoots, and realized how photography could augment his fame. Photographers said working with Ali was incredibly easy because he understood the medium so well. The subject of this Thomas Hoepker image is not just Ali, but Ali and photography.
Image: Thomas Hoepker
9 images1 | 9
Normally, to call an athlete a "work of art" would be laughably pretentious. But there is no such thing as hyperbole when it comes to Muhammad Ali, the three-time heavyweight champion of the world who transcended sports to become a figure of major cultural and political significance.
The star boxer and photo muse would have turned 75 on January 17. Ali passed away on June 3, 2016, in Scottsdale, Arizona.
On the occasion of the anniversary of Ali's birth, we look back at an exhibition of more than 70 photographs in Berlin's Camera Work gallery, titled simply "Muhammad Ali," which covered his dramatic career as a boxer from 1960 to 1980.
Many offer rare insights into the man who was born Cassius Clay, but later changed his name when he converted to Islam in 1965. But most reveal Ali's unique ability in using photography to help manufacture his larger-than-life persona.
"Ali figured out early on how stage himself aesthetically, using visual language," co-curator Alexander Golya told DW. "And he worked with very good photographers. When two enormous creative people came together, the results were often amazing."
Case in point is a photo taken by Carl Fischer in 1967 depicting Ali pierced by arrows, which was inspired by Italian renaissance painting and which alluded to Ali's religiously-motivated refusal to be drafted into the army. For that he was widely lambasted in American public opinion, stripped of his title and banned from boxing for three years.
Two of the most prominent photographers in the exhibition are Germans, Volker Hinz and Thomas Hoepker.
"Hoepker was able to establish a personal relationship with Ali," Golya said. "Ali personally selected his photographers, and Hoepker was very low-key, which suited his personality. Hoepker also had the chance to accompany Ali for days at a time, something press photographers no longer have.
The exhibition "Muhammad Ali" originally ran from August 15 to October 10, 2015, in the Camera Work gallery in Berlin.
