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Neil Leifer's Iconic Career in Sports Photojournalism
- 1. Neil Leifer Photojournalist Profile By Robby Ollari
- 2. Neil Leifer, longtime sports photojournalist Source: http://www.silversea.com/onboard/enrichm ents/guest-lecturers/neil-leifer/
- 3. Bias Photographic Style Impact Major at AIC Viewpoints Content Career Path Era Motivation Technology Ethics
- 4. Neil Leifer is a well-known, award winning photojournalist. According to Leifer's biography on his personal website, Leifer has been in the profession for some 50-plus years now. His bio states that "beginning in 1960, his pictures regularly appeared in every major national magazine, including the Saturday Evening Post, Look, LIFE, Newsweek, Time and, most often, Sports Illustrated." After all those years freelancing when his work appeared all over the place, "Leifer eventually became a staff photographer for Sports Illustrated before leaving in 1978 to become a staffer for Time magazine. In 1988 he was made a contributing photographer at LIFE magazine and spent the next two years dividing his time between Time and LIFE." His bio proudly states that as of 1990 when he left Time Inc., Leifer's work had been seen in "over 200 Sports Illustrated, Time, and People covers" setting a record within the company for the most published works for a single photographer. He's known for many examples of compelling sports photojournalism, especially focusing on boxing. Nowadays, according to his bio, Leifer spends his time as a filmmaker, producer and director. Career Path
- 5. As I mentioned, Leifer’s biography states his career in photojournalism started in 1960 when his work began appearing in major magazines. So, Lefier has seen changes to the profession since his days as a young photojournalist when he began in 1960 – 56 years ago. The field of photojournalism has certainly evolved in the nearly 60 years Lefier has spent behind the lens. There of course were the days of shooting film and Single Lens Reflexes, then came digital cameras, the internet, and so on. So as for the profession, Leifer has dealt with changing technology and added pressure as the news cycle became more constant thanks to the internet and changing technologies. Era
- 6. It’s clear that one of Leifer’s motivations would be sports. A quick Google search of his name brings up many different sports-related photos. In an interview with David Katz of The PostGame, he “lived and breathed the Dodgers, and that was during a period of time where the Dodgers would manage to lose the World Series every year to the Yankees.” But sports weren’t always his top interest. In a 2002 interview with Larry Berman and Chris Maher (bermangraphics.com), Leifer, who originally wanted to be a Navy pilot, stated: “I wasn’t immediately attracted to photographing sports. I was more interested in photographing Navy ships and Air Force and Navy planes. I used to cut school to photograph aircraft carriers and battleships coming in and out of the Brooklyn Navy Yard which was across the East River from where I lived... I took the subway and a bus out to Floyd Bennett Field which was out to the boondocks of Brooklyn to photograph Navy planes from the highway, as they’d come in and out for landings and takeoffs. That was my first real passion.” Later on, Leifer said he realized, “ I really enjoyed taking pictures and Ioved seeing my name on the credit line when they were published. As a kid I didn’t have any money and it seemed an easy way to get into a sporting event was with a credential. The problem was that I was fifteen years old and I didn’t have any credentials.” Eventually, Leifer would earn his credentials an become a renowned photographer at Sports Illustrated, where he was described in this longform piece as ”the undisputed champ of boxing photography, Leifer has delivered some of the sport’s most iconic and memorable images in Sports Illustrated’s 60- year history.” Motivation
- 7. Leifer used different cameras depending on the time period in which he was working. For example, according to Mark Edward Harris of Digital Photo Pro, on his first “assignment” – in which Leifer snuck into Yankee Stadium without credentials to cover the 1958 NFL Championship – he used “a Yashica Mat camera, what he calls ‘a poor man’s Rolleiflex.’” According to Dave Mondy of Slate, in Leifer’s most memorable image – Muhammed Ali standing over Sonny Liston after their famous fight in 1965 – Leifer used a legit Rolleiflex camera, which according to photo editor David Schonauer, “it’s partly the color and clarity of Leifer’s Ektachrome” which helped make this one of the most famous sports photos of all time. In the 2002 interview with Berman and Maher, he talked about using a 400mm Kilfitt, a Nikon 300, and said that “in terms of shooting night football and night sports, probably the best lens that’s ever been made is the 300mm f2.8.” made by Topcon and Nikon. Technology
- 8. Leifer also mentioned in the 2002 interview that he often times used remote cameras, positioning the camera somewhere and shooting remotely. “The remote cameras that I used in so many sports pictures, whether it’s under the rail of the Kentucky Derby, over the ring at a boxing match, or just as an extra camera to get the double play at second base,” Leifer said, adding “over the years, some of my best photos were ones taken by remote.” When Berman/Maher said to Leifer that today we expect cameras to be auto focus and exposure, Leifer replied “they didn’t have anything auto then.” Shows how far we’ve come technologically. Leifer is not a huge fan of the changing technologies, as he calls himself “a computer illiterate.” But in a piece for the website Still No Cheering in the Press Box, Leifer writes: “I think the cameras are fantastic. The cameras today are so much better. The lenses are better; they’re lighter, they’re faster, they’re sharper. The whole digital thing is a good thing for photography.” And in his interview with Katz, he says, “I grew up putting film in the camera, but I'm not one of those old-fashioned guys. I'll start by telling you there is no question that digital cameras and the whole system today is so superior to the ones we worked with.” Technology, ctd.
- 9. Naturally, many of us have our favorite sports teams and athletes. While some may be more casual fans as opposed to the diehards, in the end, we all tend to have a team that we usually root for. Some sports fans become attached to their heroes on the field while they’re growing up. Leifer kind of alludes to this when he writes about Sports Illustrated and the champ, Muhammed Ali, on Still No Cheering in the Press Box: “I was lucky enough to be working at Sports Illustrated with, in my opinion, the best athlete and certainly a guy who loved the camera …My career pretty much paralleled Muhammad Ali’s career as a successful, great heavyweight champion. You couldn’t have a better subject … I was a boxing fan before Muhammad came along. My dad was a fight fan and I used to watch Friday night fights with him as a kid on television … Covering it, and being around a character like Ali, it was easy to fall in love with photographing boxing. Ethics
- 10. While he may have been favorable to Ali and developed a connection with the boxer in his time covering him, on the other hand, Leifer said he never really met or interacted with many of his other subjects: “As a young photographer, other than the times that I shot in the studio, I probably did 75, maybe even 100 covers for Sports Illustrated on subjects that I never so much as shook hands with. When you go to a game, you photograph the game. The hero of the game runs on the cover of the magazine. So except when they came into the studio to pose for a posed cover, I really didn’t meet them. Quite frankly, I can count on one hand the number of subjects that I’ve so much as had a cup of coffee with outside of the shoot.” It’s understandable that the photojournalist may have had a soft spot for Ali, one of the most prominent athletes and social activists of the era, but overall, I would say that Leifer seems to understand his role from an ethics perspective. Ethics, ctd.
- 11. Leifer said that his career paralleled Muhammed Ali’s career, so in a way Ali is synonymous with Leifer’s work, considering Leifer’s most famous image he has ever taken is the Ali-Liston shot. Leifer speaks highly of Ali – in that last slide I quoted him saying that he was a boxing fan, that Ali was a wonderful character, and said that you couldn’t have a better subject than Ali. Bias
- 12. This photo shows Ali standing with Leifer and the famous photo. It’s clear that Leifer and Ali got along pretty well, and perhaps Leifer may have been a little biased in favor of Ali. I suppose covering athletes is a lot different than covering the President, though. Bias, ctd. Source: http://www.npr.org/2016/05/06/476893044/a- relentless-sports-photographer-explains-how-he-got-his- shots
- 13. In researching Leifer, you don’t find much in terms of Leifer talking about his specific techniques when it came to shooting. While Dave Mondy of Slate says that “Leifer was known for excessive preparations,” Leifer insists in several interviews that “there's a whole lot of luck in sports photography,” and that “luck in sports photography is everything and what separates the really top sports photographer from the ordinary is that when he or she gets lucky, they don't miss. That is the key.” Photographic Style
- 14. Photographic Style, ctd. Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2015/05/ali_liston_50th_an niversary_the_true_story_behind_neil_leifer_s_perfect.html This is Leifer’s most iconic photo, of Muhammed Ali knocking out Sonny Liston in their 1965 fight. Not only his most iconic, but one of the most iconic in all of sports photography. Unlike many other shots from others that night, Leifer used color which really brought this picture to life. Also, the light shining down on the ring illuminates the subjects, as well as creating and making use of shadows.
- 15. Photographic Style, ctd. Source: http://darkroom.baltimoresun.com/2013/09/phot ographer-neil-leifer-images-we-remember/#1 This image by Leifer was taken during the 1958 NFL Championship at Yankee Stadium when Leifer was still a young 18 year-old playing around with photography. The image uses black and white but it’s not overly dark so it doesn’t ruin the image. He has the background partly in focus showing Yankee Stadium’s famous façade, as well as the stadium lights which like his Ali photo also illuminate the subject. He uses an obvious main subject, which is the group of players and this play, which was actually the winning touchdown for the Baltimore Colts over the New York Giants.
- 16. Photographic Style, ctd. Source: http://www.si.com/longform/neil-leifer/ This is also from the Ali/Liston fight. Like Leifer mentioned in the technology slides, this uses a remote camera. It shows Leifer’s creativity in going that extra mile to gain a different perspective while many of his peers likely just used the camera they had in their hands near the ring. The fish eye lens also provides a unique perspective of the ring and the crowd sitting around it.
- 17. Photographic Style, ctd. Source : http://neilleifer.com/portfolio/julius-erving/ This Leifer image shows “Dr. J” Julius Erving of the Philadelphia 76ers going up for a dunk. Leifer used freeze motion to capture the action. His quick shutter speed froze the image and created a sharp shot of Erving. You can see his subject’s expression, pure focus as he goes up and finishes. Erving is his obvious main subject as the background does not distract you.
- 18. Leifer is an acclaimed, award-winning photojournalist who has covered everything from Super Bowls to World Series, from the Olympics to Muhammed Ali. In an NPR All Things Considered interview, he was asked about how the famous Ali-Liston photo has taken on more meaning and significance over time. In his response, Leifer said that “at the end of the century people were calling the greatest sports photo of the century,” despite the fact that it strangely didn’t even make the cover of SI at the time. “I think it really grew as Ali’s legend grew,” Leifer said. Anyways, it shows the impact a photojournalist can have when many are regarding one of your pictures as one of the greatest pictures within your field or the subject you cover. Impact
- 19. I am a Communication major at AIC, and within my major there are several different career paths you can follow, such as journalism, new media, photography, video, etc. I know some of my friends who are Communication majors have spent a lot of time taking photos at AIC sporting events as it is something that interests them, like Leifer. Personally, like Leifer, I am interested in journalism, and also I know a little bit about photography. While I’m not a skilled photojournalist like Neil Leifer, I would love to have his talent and considering he spent many years covering sports – a topic I love – I would say that’s a pretty cool career path to follow. Major at AIC
- 20. Leifer has been viewed positively by many observers. So much so that his Ali-Liston photo was widely considered one of the greatest sports photos of the century, as well as his awards and accomplishments. His bio states that he “is the 2006 recipient of the prestigious Lucie Award for Achievement in Sports Photography,” and “in 2008 he was honored for his outstanding contribution to Time Inc. journalism with The Britton Hadden Lifetime Achievement Award.” Clearly, Leifer has been viewed positively for his hard work and dedication to his profession. Viewpoints