How A Friendship With Muhammad Ali Resulted In Some OfThe World's Best Sports Photography

On September 9, 1966, Life magazine featured a story on Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., the risingboxing star who'd recently changed his name to a moniker more familiar to sports devotees --Muhammad Ali.

At this point, Ali had already won the gold medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome andsnatched the heavyweight title from Sonny Liston in 1964. He'd also become a point of controversyfor fans following the champion. Questioned about his connection to Black Muslim leaders likeMalcom X, and his conscientious objection to the Vietnam War, Ali was fighting battles in and out ofthe ring.

A Treasure Fault of Free Boxing Videos

Untitled, Miami, Florida, 1970, ©Gordon Parks Foundation

"Those Vietcongs are not attacking me," he declared when he resisted military draft, citing his newlyadopted religion. "All I know is that they are considered Asiatic black people, and I don't have nofight with black people." In reality that stance, coupled with his over-confident and impetuouspersona, made him all the more an icon in Civil Rights-era America.

The Life photo shoot of '66 introduced Ali to Gordon Parks, a Kansas-born photographer who, withno formal training, made his way from photojournalist with the Farm Security Administration to the

first African American staff photographer at Life magazine. Parks had previously turned his lensonto migrant workers and sixties activists. Now he was photographing "The Greatest."

Muhammad Ali Grimaces at Photographers, Miami, Florida 1970, ©Gordon Parks FoundationAmerican Champion portfolio

Parks traveled from Miami to London, snapping portraits of Ali as he puffed his chest out atreporters before his duel with Henry Cooper, and recoiled back into a patient, concerned individualwhen it was all said and done. Over several months, Parks and Ali forged a bond that no doubtaffected the shots included in the magazine. Over time, Parks had found a way to reconcile thedifferences between himself and the boxer, and appreciate Ali's place in the cultural pantheon. "Atlast, he seemed fully aware of the kind of behavior that brings respect," Parks wrote at the end of hisLife essay accompanying the photos. "Already a brilliant fighter, there was hope now that he mightbecome a champion everyone could look up to."

The article was called "The Redemption of the Champion."

Parks' work was instrumental in bringing the man of butterflies and bees back into the public's lap,particularly the close-up photo of a sweat-soaked Ali staring wistfully beyond the camera after atraining session. "For once, it's a portrait of the champion without any hint of braggadocio," TheGuardian's picture editor Jonny Weeks wrote. Four years after their initial meeting, thephotographer returned to Ali's side, profiling him once again as he prepared to fight Joe Frazier in1970. Ali was still controversial and Parks was still sympathetic to the human behind the hero. Theepigraph for that essay read: "Dripping with controversy, Muhammad Ali comes back."

Untitled, Miami, Florida, 1966, ©Gordon Parks Foundation

These photos, shot in 1966 and 1970, are now on view at Arnika Dawkins Gallery, an Atlanta,Georgia institution that specializes in the work of African American photographers capturing AfricanAmericans identities. Even today, Parks' images stand out not only as uniquely revealing portraits ofAli, but as fragments of a different kind of photojournalism, one that, as Stephen Sommersteinrecently put it, "understood composition as well as newsworthiness."

See a preview of the photos on view here, plus a few examples of Parks' previous work, many ofwhich are also on view in Arnika Dawkins Gallery's show, "Gordon Parks -- American Champion." Formore on the wonder that is Gordon Parks, see our past coverage here and here.

Gordon Parks -- American Champion will be on view at Arnika Dawkins Gallery until March 28, 2015.The Gordon Parks Foundation also recently released American Champion, a limited edition portfoliocontaining Parks' photographs of Ali and a printed essay by David E. Little, Curator and Head of theDepartment of Photography and New Media at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Untitled, ©Gordon Parks Foundation

Untitled, London, England, 1966, ©Gordon Parks Foundation

Untitled, London, England, 1966, ©Gordon Parks Foundation

Untitled, London, England , 1966, ©Gordon Parks Foundation

Muhammad Ali in Training, Miami, Florida, 1966, ©Gordon Parks Foundation

A Treasure Fault of Free Boxing Videos

More Gordon Parks

Abandoned House, Augusta, Maine, 1944, ©Gordon Parks Foundation

American Gothic, Washington, DC, 1942, ©Gordon Parks Foundation

Mother and Child, Blind River Ontario, 1955, ©Gordon Parks Foundation

On the Way to Deliver Oil, Augusta, Maine, 1944, ©Gordon Parks Foundation