Neil Leifer

Neil Leifer’s career as a photographer has spanned over fifty years, starting in his teens. He has been exceedingly successful during this time, working for Time and Life magazines. He has won many awards and published several books, mainly on sports photography.

Leifer is well known for his iconic image of Sonny Liston lying crumpled at Muhammad Ali’s feet, although this image did claim instant recognition. An image taken from beside Leifer by photographer John Rooney was published and won the 1965 World Press Photo Prize, even though its quality appears inferior. It was only as Ali’s fame grew that leifer’s photograph emerged in the public eye and was given the acclaim it so deserved.

Leifer believes that luck was on his side that evening, albeit a slow burning luck. Top photographer of the time, Herb Scharfman had taken the seat next to the judges for ease of movement, leaving his view at this climactic moment of the back Ali’s shorts. Leifer, however was seated round the other side with perfect position to capture the moment perfectly, framing Scharfman nicely between Ali’s legs.  

Shooting in colour, Leifer’s lighting setup meant that he only had one shot before waiting for his flash unit to recharge so perfect timing was vital. The image captured in reality shows Ali shouting at his opponent to get up and fight, yet it has the appearance of a proud, victorious roar.

“Luck in sports photography is everything but what separates the really top sports photographer from the ordinary is that when they get lucky, they don’t miss.”

On this occasion, Leifer certainly didn’t miss; it is not only Ali’s most recognised photograph, but one of the most noted images in sporting history.

Leifer has more recently turned to documentary film work, although he still feels that photography has a bigger place in shaping legacies. 
“One of the things about the photographs of Ali – and I say this as a photographer who became a filmmaker – is that I always felt and I continue to feel that the still photo has far more impact than any video. Nobody ever talks about the video of Muhammad Ali waving his fist and yelling at Sonny Liston…  People remember the still pictures, and, in Ali’s case, there are so many great ones.”

Bill Frakes

“Many years ago, a young American mother named Agnes Frakes pointed out images all around her tiny Nebraska town to her four-year-old son Bill: a cat’s shadow, a pool of oil beneath a car, his own name etched in a cookie tray of caramel popcorn. The boy looked at the objects and saw nothing. ‘Look again,’ she said. ‘There is always more there than what your eye sees…’ Twenty-five years later the boy became one of the most accomplished sports photographers in the world.”

— James McBride, part of his introduction in the book “Family: A Celebration of Humanity”; taken from Bill Frakes’ website.

I just love Bill Frakes’ strapline; ‘Emotional motion’; those two words sum up everything I aim to be as a photographer. About a year ago, I was advised that to find my personal voice, I should write down the three words that mean the most to me as a photographer and always strive for that in the images I shoot. My three words were active, emotional and natural.

Active - because although I love to photograph people, I don’t consider myself to be a portrait photographer. I’ve never been a massive fan of posed portraits; I don’t want to know what a person looks like, I want to see what they are doing, what they are thinking.

Emotive - because when I look a photograph, I want to be able to feel something. I want it to evoke a memory or a feeling, maybe a memory of a feeling. I want people to see what I saw when I pressed the button or to feel what my subject felt.

Natural - because as well as my images being real and natural, I’m all about the natural environment. I’m at my best outdoors; I feel that the texture of a red brick wall or the bark of a tree provides a far superior backdrop than a piece of rolled up vinyl and although studio lighting can enhance an image, it can’t replace the warm tones of the golden hour or the cool light reflected from freshly laid snow.

I have had these three words on my computer desktop ever since, although I very rarely look at them as I strive to achieve this every day.

Bill Frakes has definitely achieved this; his website archives, split into faces, games and places all carry the same theme; an intelligent use of colour, light and shape to bring together a sense that something is happening, whether it be a dramatic landscape, a sporting moment or in capturing the chemistry between a young couple.  

Frakes describes himself as a photojournalist and professes to retain this title, even when shooting an advertising campaign. Whether photographing landscapes or sport, he is looking for what is important and aiming to show it artistically, aiming to create a visceral and evocative experience.

Assignment 4: A Sense of Place - a rethink

My original idea for Assignment 4, before the Brighton project was to concentrate on a particular building in Hull; a big gold box which sums up all that has disappointed me about my hometown over the past few years. It feels like every day, another beautiful, old, thoughtfully designed building is being demolished to make way for soulless boxes. Strangely, my recent trip to Brighton made me realise that this phenomenon is not unique to Hull. Instead of my usual drive down south, I got the train and was picked up from the station by my friend. Driving around the back of the station, I noticed that even the town I’ve always thought of as quirky and unique is in parts, becoming boxville; now that was a pretty depressing realisation.

So what is unique about Hull? If I were creating a tourist brochure, I’d be thinking about promoting its proximity to the coast, it’s fishing heritage and the ferry port, giving access to Zeebrugge and Rotterdam. I did think about following Hull’s famous Fish Trail around the city photographing the city as I went along. But it’s not a tourist brochure, it’s an intelligent travel publication, aiming to get to the heart of my chosen city.

My tutor’s words that I may not score well on creativity on this assignment have rung in my ears to the point where I’m snap shotting anything and everything in a bid to try and create ideas. A sleepless night and a lot of advice from the OCA Facebook group made me realise that I needed to pull back.

A walk around Hull with my husband and without my camera allowed me to do just that. During one of my wildly snap shotting moments, I had taken a few photos of the redevelopment going on in the city centre and had been mulling over one particular image as my opening image. Concentrating on a different part of the city centre today, my idea started to grow. I noticed a few things; some which fit with the gold box idea, some that fit with the redevelopment set - some combined the two.

As we approach 2017, Hull has gone into mad panic, redeveloping everything from city centre walkways to a complete refurb on the Hull New Theatre, which won’t actually be complete until 2017 is nearly over. The Ferens Art Gallery have photographer, Spencer Tunick visiting to create a piece of work featuring thousands of naked Hull residents and there’s a buzz of hope in the air that Hull, once known as one of the worst places to live might just be a place worth visiting after all.

Right now though, in the opening months of 2016, Hull is not a city of culture, it’s a city of inconvenience. The entire city centre is a maze of silver and orange fences, boards creating bridges over dug up walkways; a trip to town now takes twice the time it should. All over the city, boards tell us that change is happening, in a weak bid to convince us that it’ll all be worth it. Do we believe it? Only time will tell.

The most ironic part of this assignment is that as I photographed the gold box, in a bid to show what I hated about it, I actually started to like it. It’s made me realised that maybe you can’t even judge inanimate objects until you’ve really got to know them…