Legendary Sports Photographer’s Show Opens

Yesterday [May 2] saw American iconic sports photographer Neil Leifer displaying some of his most famous images — including heavyweight world champ boxer Mohammad Ali knocking out Sonny Liston and, “The Miracle on Ice”-US Hockey Team winning the Olympic Gold Medal — at the Masterworks Museum. .

The new Bermuda exhibit also features a huge image of a covered-in-mud-from head-toe quarterback Joe Namath and Secretariat’s Triple Crown Horse race. These are some of the most magnificent sports images that have been frozen in time.

During the second half of the 20th century, Neil Leifer had a front-row seat at sporting events that have become the stuff of legend. As a staff photographer for “Sports Illustrated” and “Time”, Mr.Leifer had incredible access to the best and biggest events of the period. “The camera was my ticket to anywhere I wanted to go,” he said.

His photography career has spanned over 50 years since becoming a professional while still in his teens. 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.”

Mr. 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 its sister publication.

When Mr. Leifer left Time Inc. in 1990, his photographs had appeared on over 200 “Sports Illustrated”, “Time” and “People” covers—at that point, the most ever published of one photographer’s work in Time Inc. history.

Mr. Leifer has traveled all over the world on sports assignments. He has photographed 16 Olympic Games (7 winter and 9 summer), 4 World Cups, 15 Kentucky Derbies, countless World Series games, the first 10 Super Bowls and every important heavyweight title fight since Floyd Patterson beat Ingemar Johansson to regain the title in 1960.

He has photographed his favorite subject, Mohammad Ali, on almost 60 different occasions—covering his biggest fights and over 30 one-on-one studio sessions.

The Masterworks exhibit continues today in the Rick Faries Gallery with a special guest lecture, where Neil Leifer will discuss his award winning photography of the 2012 Olympic athletes. The lecture will begin at 5:30pm.

#Artists

Category: All