Showing posts with label Life Magazine photographers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life Magazine photographers. Show all posts

Friday, September 29, 2023

New Exhibit and Gallery Conversation: Bob Gomel - Classics

 BOB GOMEL: CLASSICS




Santa Fe--Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, is pleased to announce a special exhibition of photographs celebrating Bob Gomel’s recent 90th birthday with several never-before-see photographs from three of his most iconic assignments for LIFE magazine: photographs of The Beatles, Muhammad Ali, and President John F. Kennedy.

The exhibition opens with a Gallery conversation with Bob Gomel on Friday, October 6. Talk begins promptly at 5:30, seated is limited and RSVP is essential; contact the Gallery for live Zoom registration. The exhibition continues through November 19, 2023.

The photographs of Bob Gomel put you in a diner with Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X after Ali’s defeat of Sonny Liston, poolside with the Beatles, and in the audience at Rice University as President John F. Kennedy delivered his historic “We choose to go to the Moon” speech. This exhibit explores three classic assignments for LIFE magazine with many never-before-seen photographs of The Beatles, Muhammad Ali, and President John F. Kennedy.

 “I had no idea the 60s would be so iconic. It seemed quite ordinary at the time, but looking back on it now, I realize how fortunate I was.”

From the tumult of battle to the glamour of movie stars, from the wonders of nature to the coronation of kings, queens, and presidents, the work of LIFE photographers is as much a history of American photojournalism as it is a history of the changing face of the latter part of the Twentieth Century. On the pages of LIFE, through the images captured by these masters, the eyes of a nation were opened as never before to a changing world. 

The triumphs and tragedies of the 1960s provided photographer Bob Gomel and his LIFE magazine colleague’s extraordinary opportunities to advance American photojournalism. "LIFE was the world's best forum for photojournalists. We were encouraged to push creative and technical boundaries. There was no better place to work in that extraordinary decade." 


Invitation card with 3 images by Bob Gomel: Black Muslim leader Malcolm X photographing Cassius Clay after he defeated Sonny Liston for the Heavyweight Championship, Miami, 1964 2. John F. Kennedy, Houston, before giving his famous speech at Rice University about going to the moon, 1962 3. The Beatles on pool chairs,, Miami, 1964


Bob Gomel was born (1933) and raised in New York City. After serving four years in the U.S. Navy, he was promptly offered a job at the Associated Press. But by then, he had changed his mind about what he wanted to do. “I just felt one picture wasn’t sufficient to tell a story,” he explains. “I was interested in exploring something in depth. And, of course, the mecca was Life magazine.”He turned down the offer from AP, and began working for LIFE in 1959, producing many memorable images. When LIFE ceased being a weekly in the early 1970s, he began making photographs for other major magazines. Also in the 1970s, he branched out into advertising photography. Among other accounts, he helped introduce Merrill Lynch’s Bullish on America campaign.

Bob says, “Each time I raised a camera to my eye I wondered how to make a viewer say, “wow.” What followed were the use of double exposures to tell a more complete story; placing remote cameras where no human being could be; adapting equipment to reveal what could not ordinarily be captured on film. My goal with people was to penetrate the veneer, to reveal the true personality or character. The ideal was sometimes mitigated by circumstances, a lack of time or access. But more often than not what the mind conceived could be translated into successful photographic images. Life Magazine in the 60s sold 8,000,000 copies a week. It was a great honor to be a part of that information highway.” 


Friday, July 14, 2023

An Evening with Bob Gomel and screening of the film Bob Gomel: Eyewitness

Via MATCH Houston 


When history was made, Bob Gomel was there.

Graphic advertisement for movie screening of "Bob Gomel Eyewitness" with text over black and white photograph of Bob Gomel holding his camera


Bob Gomel: Eyewitness is a documentary that examines the stories behind the stories of some of the most significant events in the 20th century. Hear and see the history unfold from the perspective of a legendary LIFE Magazine photographer. Join us for An Evening with Bob Gomel - The theatrical premier of the documentary Bob Gomel: Eyewitness, including 14 additional minutes of previously unseen material. There will be a Q/A session with Bob Gomel and director David Scarbrough following the showing. 

Thursday, July 20 at 7:30 PM


Q & A Immediately following the screening

with Bob Gomel and David Scarbrough 

Tickets: $10


How the documentary came to be:

Bob Gomel and David Scarbrough share a love of storytelling through photography.


During the past decade the two men and their spouses, Sandy Gomel and Mary Scarbrough, became friends. Bob’s shot of The Beatles in poolside lounge chairs hangs in the Scarbroughs’ home. It was Mary’s birthday gift to David for his 60th birthday.

David said, “The history Bob witnessed is important. So are the effort and creativity necessary to make extraordinary images of these historic moments. Many of the images are made even more powerful by Bob’s perspective on how they were created. ”David convinced Bob to reflect on his work for LIFE magazine in the 1960s and his subsequent career.

Over dinner one evening, the Scarbroughs proposed making a documentary of Bob’s career. Bob said, “David offered a compelling idea to consider. After a few days, I said, ‘Let’s do it.’”

The documentary project came together quickly. A small studio was set up in Scarbrough’s retail computer electronics shop in Houston. Sessions were shot on Sundays when the shop was closed and outside noise was minimal. As many filmmakers do now, David chose to record the videos in 4K on two iPhones in a two-shot setup. A MacBook Pro and Adobe Premier Pro were be used to edit the video.

The recordings began with a discussion of the Cassius Clay and Sonny Liston fights. The project quickly gained momentum as David executed his vision for the project, and the stories of more of the epic photos came to life.

“The challenge was to balance Bob’s unique ability to talk about the images and history, and to ensure the viewer remained immersed in the image itself,” David said. “I hope the viewer can briefly live in the moment of the images.”

Bob said, “The decade of the 1960s was historically powerful. We witnessed so much — from the terrific to the terrible. I’m grateful that David remains interested in the history of the 1960s and that his documentary helped share my perspective on the extraordinary events of the decade and on my life as a photographer.”

A headline in a recent Albuquerque Journal article read: “Bob Gomel’s Photographs Compel Even after 40 Years.” The renowned LIFE photographer has documented many of the great moments and personalities of contemporary history. Articles and books have chronicled Bob’s adventures, including Art Buckwald’s “Leaving Home”, Yoko Ono’s “Memories of John Lennon”, “Arnold Palmer: A Personal Journey,” “Malcolm X”, by Thulani Davis, and Dick Stolley’s “Our Century in Pictures”. His work is exhibited at The Monroe Gallery, Santa Fe.

Bob is a founding member of the Houston chapter of ASMP, the American Society of Media Photographers. ASMP is the leading professional organization for photographers and videographers working in the visual marketplace. The core mission of ASMP is to advocate, educate, and provide community for image makers — fostering thriving careers, a strong sense of professional ethics, and an unshakable belief in the power of images.


Forthcoming exhibition and Gallery Talk with Bob Gomel: October 6, 2023. Details soon!

Thursday, October 20, 2022

The magazine that gave photography unprecedented power

 Via The Washington Post

October 20, 2022


photograph of covers of 3 LIFE magazine issues
© Ann and Graham Gund Gallery/Photograph copyright Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/Ann and Graham Gund Gallery
Photograph copyright Museum of Fine Arts, Boston


This fact floored me: Between the Great Depression and the Vietnam War, according to the organizers of “Life Magazine and the Power of Photography,” an exhibition at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, “the majority of photographs printed and consumed in the United States appeared on the pages of illustrated magazines.”

Today, with photographs published and consumed everywhere, it’s staggering to think that their dissemination was ever so concentrated.

Preeminent among illustrated magazines was Life. Published as a weekly news magazine between 1936 and 1972, Life magazine sold in the tens of millions. When you include pass-along readership, its pages regularly reached about one-quarter of America’s population. -- click to continue with full article


Life Magazine and the Power of Photography Through Jan. 16 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. mfa.org.


Related exhibit: The LIFE Photographers

Wednesday, October 12, 2022

New MFA exhibit explores world history through photography: "LIFE Magazine and the Power of Photography,”

Via The Suffolk Journal

October 12, 2022

By Leo Woods

The Museum of Fine Arts opened its newest exhibit, “LIFE Magazine and the Power of Photography,” on Oct. 9, allowing patrons to step back in time and experience some of the most pivotal moments of the 20th century captured on film. 

The exhibit, made in collaboration with Princeton University Art Museum, details the genesis of LIFE, which was published weekly from 1936-1972. Henry R. Luce, the founder of LIFE, took inspiration from European picture magazines to create a publication that would be both visually enticing and informative to the American people. His work was a success, as LIFE regularly reached 1 in 4 Americans during the years of its publication, according to the MFA.

As visitors walk through the exhibit, they see the process by which LIFE was developed and found its niche over time. With unique insight into the photography process and how stories were developed for the magazine, the exhibit seeks to examine how American views of the 20th century were shaped by magazines from the period. 

The works of over 30 photographers are featured in the exhibit, including Margaret Bourke-White, Robert Capa, Frank Dandrige and Gordon Parks. Each photographer’s signature style and vision are clear in their use of composition and perspective, from Bourke-White’s empowering portraits of female steelworkers in Indiana to Dandrige’s heartbreaking still at the bedside of Sarah Jean Collins, one of the victims of the 1963 bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala.

One of the most striking parts of the exhibit is the section titled “Documenting War,” which shows how photojournalists for LIFE were on the front lines of World War II and the Vietnam War, capturing historical images that allowed Americans to see the unfiltered reality of conflict overseas. Capa was one of only four photographers permitted to document the storming of Normandy, France, and the slightly shaky picture of soldiers running up the beach through the waves was published in LIFE at least eight times, according to the caption underneath the image.

While LIFE sought to bring nuance to stories with their photography, the magazine’s audience primarily consisted of white, middle-class Americans, and the photo essays reflected the attitudes of that group. When George Rodger and Bourke-White’s haunting photos of the recently liberated German concentration camps were published in 1945, LIFE refused to identify victims of the Holocaust as Jewish, reinforcing the anti-semitic sentiment in the United States at the time.

LIFE’s pieces also portrayed the U.S. as a “savior” of individuals like Japanese-Americans who were forced into internment camps in the aftermath of the bombing at Pearl Harbor. The magazine published letters to the editor criticizing the inaccurate depiction of the camps and the unfair treatment of the incarcerated residents, but the majority of reader responses “expressed vehemently xenophobic anti-Japanese sentiments,” according to a caption beside images of the camps.

In an effort to highlight the bias and discrepancies still present in journalism today, the MFA has included immersive works by contemporary artists Alfredo Jaar, Alexandra Bell and Julia Wachtel dispersed throughout the exhibit. 

Jaar’s featured pieces include work from his Rwanda Project, which documented the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Jaar called the project an “exercise in representation,” challenging the international community’s lack of response to the genocide. Over 1 million Rwandans belonging to the Tutsi ethnic group were killed by Hutu militias during a 100-day period, and no outside governments intervened, much less acknowledged that it was happening.

In an effort to contextualize the scale of the genocide, Jaar created “Eyes of Nduwa yezu,” a display of 1 million picture slides of a young boy, Nduwayezu, who witnessed his parents’ murder by Hutu militia members. The piece is striking, the eyes of the young boy seem to bore into the viewer, challenging them to feel the despair he does.

Bell’s “Counternarrative” series examines the implicit bias and systemic racism present in reporting today. Side-by-side images of the front page of the New York Times show Bell’s edits in red ink, pointing out how whiteness is seen as innocent in the eyes of the press, especially in the case of Michael Brown Jr., a Black Missouri teenager killed by a white police officer in 2017. 

The MFA commissioned Wachtel to create a multimedia piece to go alongside images of Japanese internment camps from the 1940s, and the stage-like composition of the work creates a commentary on the politicization of mass media, as well as LIFE’s erasure of the truth behind the camps. Oil paintings of Gen. Douglas MacArthur cover a blurred photo of internment camp residents, showing how the U.S.’s military power superseded the humanity of individuals solely based on their race.

“LIFE Magazine and the Power of Photography” offers a revolutionary insight into American history and culture, as well as explores the incredible impact publications like LIFE had on a global scale. Timed-entry tickets are required to view the exhibit, which is on display until Jan. 16, 2023.


Related: THE LIFE PHOTOGRAPHERS: Celebrating Monroe Gallery’s 20th Anniversary in Santa Fe

Saturday, August 27, 2022

Coming in October: See ‘Life Magazine and the Power of Photography’ at the MFA Boston

 Via Boston.com

August 26, 2022

3 frames of woman welders at work in 1943
Flame Burner Ann Zarik, taken in 1943. Photo by Margaret Bourke-White, Life picture collection

The museum displays photos from the archives of the publication that shaped American photojournalism.

The Museum of Fine Arts will display dozens of original photos from Life magazine’s archives in “Life Magazine and the Power of Photography” this fall, highlighting Life’s cultural impact and the way its photos shaped American media throughout the mid-twentieth century.

Life printed in some capacity from 1883 through 2000. Published independently until 1936, Life was a light entertainment magazine heavy on illustrations, featuring the likes of Charles Dana Gibson and Norman Rockwell. Publisher Henry Luce bought the publication in 1936, turning it into the notable American photographic magazine we know it as today. The first of its kind, it defined photojournalism and chronicled historic moments of the last century, like the moon landing and the Birmingham civil rights demonstrations. Life was the first to publish Alfred Eisenstaedt’s “V-J Day in Times Square.”

The exhibit will display original photos alongside objects from Life’s paper archives like assignment outlines, memos, and layout drafts, taking a close look at how Life photo essays were constructed from assignment all the way through to completion. In peering behind the scenes of the magazine’s creation, the exhibit also examines how Life shaped conversations around topics like race, war, technology, and national identity. 

“Life Magazine and the Power of Photography” also displays three immersive contemporary works interspersed throughout the exhibit—a multimedia installation by Alfredo Jaar, screen prints and photos by Alexandra Bell, and a new commission by Julia Wachtel all examine modern news media and themes like implicit biases.

The exhibit features the work of photographers like Margaret Bourke-White, Larry Burrows, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Frank Dandridge, Yousuf Karsh, Gordon Parks, and W. Eugene Smith, and runs Oct. 9 through Jan. 16 in the Ann and Graham Gund Gallery.


Related: Monroe Gallery Exhibition "The LIFE Photographers"

LIFE Magazine Show Opens At Monroe Gallery Of Photography

Wednesday, August 3, 2022

Richard Skipper Celebrates the world of Bill Eppridge with Adrienne Aurichio

screen shot of Richard Skipper Celebrates the world of Bill Eppridge with Adrienne Aurichio YouTube page


Monroe Gallery is pleased to welcome Adrienne Aurichio to Santa Fe on September 30 for a talk about the life and career of legendary photojournalist Bill Eppridge. The talk opens a new exhibition of Eppridge's photographs that features many new, rare early works.

September 30 - November 20, 2022

 

Sunday, June 19, 2022

Monroe Gallery exhibit looks at history through Life’s photographs

 Via The Albuquerque Journal

By Kathaleen Roberts    June 19, 2022

black and white photograph of The Beatles lounging on pool chairs at swimming pool in Miami, 1964

The Beatles, Miami 1964,” at a private residence after their appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” (Courtesy of Bob Gomel)

SANTA FE – When Sidney and Michelle Monroe stepped into the workplace of the great photojournalist Alfred Eisenstaedt decades ago, they were more than intimidated.

“There’s a picture of Hitler and Mussolini shaking hands in his office,” Michelle Monroe said. “We’re not peers.

“Honestly, we could barely catch our breath, we were so star-struck.”

That meeting in New York’s Time-Life building would launch a career of exhibiting some of the most pioneering photojournalists in the country. Monroe Gallery will celebrate the glory days of Life magazine with about 40 images by such photographic luminaries as Eisenstaedt, Margaret Bourke-White, Bob Gomel and Bill Ray through June 26.

Known as the father of photojournalism, Eisenstaedt is best recognized for his image of a sailor kissing a nurse in a dance-like dip during Times Square’s V-J celebration in 1945. When the Monroes approached him, he had never shown his work in a gallery before.

In 1963, Life assigned the photographer a photo essay on life in Paris.

“He didn’t know what he could do that Henri Cartier-Bresson hadn’t done,” Sidney Monroe said.

While he was walking the streets, Eisenstaedt spotted a playground with a puppet show of “St. George and the Dragon.” He crawled under the stage and began shooting the crowd from beneath the drape. The photographer captured the children in the audience, their facial expressions tumbling from delight into fear and horror.

“It’s almost timeless, aside from their clothing, it could be any time,” Sidney said. “It’s a great example of what a photographer does.”

Gomel was already in Miami to shoot the Muhammad Ali-Sonny Liston fight when his editors asked him to photograph the Beatles. The foursome had flown south to relax immediately after their 1964 “Ed Sullivan Show” debut. Gomel shot them sunbathing at a private home.

“The editor of Life was really interested in the world of pop culture,” Sidney said. “The Beatles would sell so many magazines.”

Carl Mydans had been captured by the invading Japanese when the Philippines fell during World War II. He was freed during a prisoner exchange in 1943.

In 1945, Mydans photographed the Japanese formal surrender on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri in front of Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

Mydans had also shot the famous image of MacArthur wading onto a Philippines beach.

“When news came of the formal surrender, it was bedlam,” Sidney Monroe said. Mydans approached a MacArthur aide to make sure he gained entry to the ship.

The photographer captured the iconic moment while he was straddling a cannon. As soon as he shot the photo, a sailor pulled him off.

“The U.S. officials came in wearing their day-to-day khakis, much to the displeasure of the Japanese,” Sidney Monroe said.

Bourke-White was the first photographer hired by Life.

When she photographed Mahatma Gandhi in 1946, he insisted she learn to spin in order to have an audience with him.

“He had no time to digress from his campaign to free India from British oppression,” Sidney said. “She needed him and he knew he needed her.”

Founded by Henry Luce, publisher of Time magazine, Life was long one of the most popular and imitated of American magazines, selling millions of copies a week. Published weekly from 1936 to 1972, it emphasized photography.

“They’re all in their very defining moments,” Sidney Monroe said. “The moments are in our heads because they’re part of our history.”

If you go

WHAT: “The LIFE Photographers”

WHERE: Monroe Gallery of Photography, 112 Don Gaspar, Santa Fe

WHEN: Through June 26

CONTACT: monroegallery.com, 505-992-0800

Friday, April 29, 2022

Photograph by John Dominis Inside legendary photo agent Lee Gross’ Manhattan apartment

 Via Wallpaper

April 29, 2022

Dancer Jacques D'Amboise swinging his 2 sonse against water background in Seattle, Washingtom
John Dominis/©The Life Picture Collection
Jacques D'Amboise Playing with his Sons, Seattle, Washington, 1962
Featured in the exhibition The LIFE Photographers
May 6-June 19, 2022



Inside legendary photo agent Lee Gross’ Manhattan apartment

Lee Gross, a photo agent who pioneered the capturing of behind-the-scenes movie-set images in the 1960s, talks us through the treasures of her West Village apartment




Sunday, March 27, 2022

Portraits, Personalities, Passion: The Photography of Tony Vaccaro Exhibit at The Rye Arts Center April 7th – May 13th.

 Via Arts Westchester

model wearing an architectural hat resembling the Guggenheim Museum in front of the Guggenheil Museum


The Rye Arts Center is proud to present its second exhibition of works by world renowned photographer Tony Vaccaro, following its 1992 exhibit “The Vision of Tony Vaccaro – a Fifty Year Retrospective.” Curated by Patrick Cicalo and Gail Harrison Roman, the exhibition demonstrates how Tony’s visually eloquent photographs provide a cultural history of his time, providing a record of figures in arts and letters and in public life, and scenes of war and death.

As a combat photographer in the Second World War, Tony captured on film wartime images that evoke the determination and camaraderie of soldiers in combat, the pathos of defeat and death, and the joy of liberation, all represented in the exhibit.

Upon his return to the United States, Tony took up fashion and celebrity photography working for major magazines of the postwar era: Harper’s Bazaar, Flair, Life, Look, Newsweek, Time, Vogue, and other popular news and fashion magazines. He amassed a treasure trove of celebrity images from the worlds of television and film, art and architecture, politics, and fashion. Included in this exhibition are portraits of Irving Berlin, Leonard Cohen, Givenchy, Georgia O’Keeffe, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, and Frank Lloyd Wright, and others.

Much of what is creative in photography today has its birth behind Tony’s lens. His pioneering work in visual interpretation and artistic presentation was a catalyst in the advancement of magazine photojournalism and celebrity portraiture. A selection of Tony’s cameras and memorabilia will be on view as well.

A special section of Tony’s cameras and personal memorabilia, curated by Sarah Mackay, will be on view in the Gallery.

Photographs in the exhibition appear courtesy of Tony Vaccaro Studio and the Monroe Gallery of Photography. 

Tony will speak about his work at the Opening Reception, free and open to the public, on Thursday, April 7th from 5:30-7:30pm. Reservations are suggested but not required.

The exhibition will be on view at The Rye Arts Center from April 7th – May 13th.

Gallery hours are Mondays, 9am-3pm; Tuesdays – Fridays, 9am-7pm; Saturdays, 9am-3pm; closed on Sundays.

For more information, go to www.ryeartscenter.org

Wednesday, February 16, 2022

The Greatest Weekend, with Bob Gomel

 

Via The Historic Hampton House

Muhammad Ali's fist towards camera at his victory party after he defeated Sonny Liston, February, 1964, Miami
Bob Gomel: Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) victory party after he defeated Sonny Liston for the Heavyweight Championship, Hampton House, Miami, Florida, February 1964


The event commemorates the legacy of Cassius Clay's (Muhammad Ali's) momentous victory against Sonny Liston on February 25, 1964.

About this event

The Greatest Weekend is a three-day inaugural festival taking place at the Historic Hampton House Museum & Cultural Center in Brownsville, Miami, Florida, on February 25-27, 2022.

The event commemorates the legacy of Muhammad Ali’s momentous victory against Sonny Liston on February 25, 1964, in Miami Beach, which earned him boxing's World Heavyweight Championship title.


The Line-Up

Join us for discussions Ringside, Music in the Courtyard, Food Court with food trucks and vendors at the Villagers Welcome Plaza (West entry) with friends of The Historic Hampton House. 

*Schedule is subject to change*

Friday, February 25th - Welcome to The Greatest Weekend-6:00 to 11:00 PM

6:00 PM Opening Reception - Kick-off the evening with lite bites and drinks. 6:30 PM Welcome and Evening Festivities! 7:00 PM-The Weigh-In-Sonny Liston and Cassius Clay Discussion lead by Boxing Historian Ramiro Otero 8:00 PM-Round One: Clay in Allapattah-The story of Cassius Clay living in Miami through the eyes of neighbors, moderated by Calvin Hughes 9:00 PM - The Concert - Carla Cooke (daughter of Sam Cooke) graces The Hampton House Stage.

Saturday, February 26th - The Boxing Match Continues! Round for Round-10:00 AM to 6:00 PM

10:00 AM-Round Two: Fifth Street Gym-Training Cassius Clay, a discussion narrative of his training. 11:15 AM-12:15 PM-Round Three: Third Man in the Ring-Whom did you come to see? The referee is the main attraction, decisions, and calls during the fight. 12:30-1:45 pm-Have a seat in Your Corner: LUNCH IN THE FOOD COURT - Enjoy the fare from local food trucks and shop with vendors in the courtyard at the Historic Hampton House. 2:00-3:15 PM-Round Four: Women Around The Ring-Calling to Remembrance, the life of Cassius Clay, boxing through the eyes of love and friendship moderated by Tameka Hobbs. 3:30-5:00 PM-Round Five: The Knockout-Knockout Shots! A conversation with photojournalist Bob Gomel, returning to The Historic Hampton House after 58 years.

MUSIC, FOOD FESTIVITIES CONTINUE IN THE COURTYARD AND FOOOOOOD COURT!

Sunday, February 27th - The Historic Hampton House Tours at 11:00 AM, 1:00 PM, and 4:00 PM

The event is FREE but must have tickets to enter the museum. Get tickets here.

Food Court does not require tix but admission will be limited. It’s gonna be a real KNOCKOUT! Come be a part of the Inaugural event of Great Conversation, Music, Dance, Food, and Fun!!


You can help the Historic Hampton House raise funds to acquire Bob Gome's prints to stay at the Historic Hampton House for permanent display here.

Monday, February 7, 2022

Muhammad, Malcolm, and Miami: A Conversation with Bob Gomel and Peniel Joseph

 Via The Briscoe Center for American History

side by side photos of Ali ate Hampton House and still from One Night in Miami


Muhammad, Malcolm, and Miami:

A Conversation with Bob Gomel and Peniel Joseph

Feb. 15, 2022  •  5:00 p.m. CST • Recording available here

About the program:

Please join the Briscoe Center and LBJ Presidential Library on Feb. 15, 2022, for Muhammad, Malcolm, and Miami: A Conversation with Bob Gomel and Peniel Joseph. The online event is presented in conjunction with the Briscoe Center’s exhibit “One Night in Miami”: From Photo to Film, currently on display at the LBJ Presidential Library.

 After his victory over Sonny Liston for the heavyweight championship on Feb. 25, 1964, Muhammad Ali celebrated at the Hampton House, a motel and diner in Miami that served as a gathering place for Black entertainers and celebrities. The evening inspired Kemp Powers’s 2013 play, “One Night in Miami,” which was adapted into Regina King’s Academy Award-nominated 2020 movie.

 Key scenes in the movie were inspired by iconic photos taken by Bob Gomel and Flip Schulke, famed photojournalists whose archives are housed at the Briscoe Center. These photos—Gomel’s photographs of Malcolm X and Ali in the Hampton House diner, and Schulke’s underwater photos of Ali—will be the focus of the event.

Bob Gomel will talk about his relationship with Ali over multiple photo sessions, including the “Life” magazine assignment that resulted in the iconic images of Ali and Malcolm X at the Hampton House. Distinguished historian Peniel Joseph will discuss the event’s historical context and share his thoughts on the relationship between Malcolm and Ali. The discussion will be joined by Mark Updegrove, president and CEO of the LBJ Foundation, and Don Carleton, executive director of the Briscoe Center.

 The online event is free. Visit https://muhammadmalcolmandmiami.eventbrite.com to register, and you will receive an email the day before the event with the link.

 

The exhibit, “One Night in Miami”: From Photo to Film, showcases photos from the Briscoe Center’s collections that inspired key moments in the 2020 film. The photos by Gomel and Schulke, many of which have never before been exhibited, depict a young Muhammed Ali (then known by his birth name, Cassius Clay) during the early years of his boxing career. Located in the LBJ Library’s Great Hall, the exhibit is open through May 8, 2022. 

REGISTER HERE

About Bob Gomel:

A native New Yorker, Bob Gomel produced numerous noteworthy images for “Life,” including assignments documenting Marilyn Monroe, the Beatles, and this series showing Muhammed Ali with Malcolm X. He later freelanced for “Sports Illustrated,” “Newsweek” and “Fortune” magazines, among others, before transitioning to advertising photography. Gomel has received numerous awards during his career and continues to travel and photograph international subjects. His archive at the Briscoe Center ranges in date from 1959 to 2014, and includes film negatives, contact sheets, and exhibit prints. He currently resides in Houston, Texas, with his wife Sandra.


Tuesday, January 25, 2022

Remembering Steve Schapiro


black and white photograph of Steve Schapiro in Monroe gallery, Santa Fe, NM
Steve Schapiro at one of his many exhibitions held at Monroe Gallery of Photography, Santa Fe, NM
Photo by ©R. David Marks


Steve Schapiro died peacefully on January 15 surrounded by his wife, Maura Smith, and son, Theophilus Donoghue in Chicago, Illinois after battling pancreatic cancer. He was 87. 


The New York Times: Steve Schapiro, Photojournalist Who Bore Witness, Dies at 87

“You didn’t get the sense from his photographs that Steve was even in the room,” Sidney Monroe, co-owner of a photojournalism gallery in Santa Fe, N.M., that exhibited Mr. Schapiro’s work, said in an interview.


CNN: 'His images moved minds': The legacy of Steve Schapiro

BLIND Magazine: Steve Schapiro, Chronicler of 20th Century America, Dies At 87

The Times UK: Steve Schapiro obituary - Acclaimed photographer whose subjects ranged from Martin Luther King to Barbra Streisand

People: Steve Schapiro, Photojournalist Who Shot PEOPLE's First Cover, Dies at 87: 'His Talent Defied Genres'

Chicago Sun Times: Photographer Steve Schapiro, whose photos captured civil rights, arts ‘time capsules,’ dead at 87

Los Angeles Times: Photojournalist Steve Schapiro, who died last week, left images that reach into the soul of history

ArtDaily: Photographer Steve Schapiro has died at age 87

Pro Photo Daily: What We Learned This Week: Steve Shapiro, Acclaimed Photojournalist, Dies at 87

Chicago Tribune:  Chicago photographer Steve Schapiro is dead at 87. He captured the world with his camera, from the civil rights era to De Niro.

Variety: Steve Schapiro, Photojournalist and Film Industry Photographer, Dies at 87

The Guardian UK: Ali to Andy W: Steve Schapiro’s life in photography – in pictures

Washington Post: Steve Schapiro, Prize Winning Photographer, Dies at 87

ABC News: A prize-winning photographer whose indelible images ranged from civil rights marches to the set of “The Godfather” and other films, Steve Schapiro has died at age 87

US News: Steve Schapiro, Prize-Winning Photographer, Dies at 87

Hollywood Reporter: Steve Schapiro, Acclaimed Photojournalist, Dies at 87


Sunday, January 16, 2022

PHOTOGRAPHER STEVE SCHAPIRO DIES AT 87

 

photographer  Steve Schapiro in Monroe Gallery, Santa Fe
Steve Schapiro in Monroe Gallery, Santa Fe
Photograph by ©R. David Marks


January 16, 2022

Prolific photographer Steve Schapiro covered major historical events and captured seminal moments of the American Civil Rights Movement


Santa Fe, NM--Steve Schapiro died peacefully on January 15 surrounded by his wife, Maura Smith, and son, Theophilus Donoghue in Chicago, Illinois after battling pancreatic cancer. He was 87.

Steve Schapiro discovered photography at the age of nine at summer camp. Excited by the camera’s potential, Schapiro spent the next decades prowling the streets of his native New York City trying to emulate the work of French photographer Henri Cartier Bresson, whom he greatly admired. His first formal education in photography came when he studied under the photojournalist W. Eugene Smith. Smith’s influence on Schapiro was far-reaching. He taught him the technical skills he needed to succeed as a photographer but also informed his personal outlook and worldview. Schapiro’s lifelong interest in social documentary and his consistently empathetic portrayal of his subjects is an outgrowth of his days spent with Smith and the development of a concerned humanistic approach to photography.

Beginning in 1961, Schapiro worked as a freelance photojournalist. His photographs appeared internationally in the pages and on the covers of magazines, including Life, Look, Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Sports Illustrated, People and Paris Match. During the decade of the 1960s in America, called the “golden age in photojournalism,” Schapiro produced photo-essays on subjects as varied as narcotics addition, Easter in Harlem, the Apollo Theater, Haight-Ashbury, political protest, the presidential campaign of Robert Kennedy, poodles and presidents. A particularly poignant story about the lives of migrant workers in Arkansas, produced in 1961 for Jubilee and picked up by the New York Times Magazine, both informed readers about the migrant workers’ difficult living conditions and brought about tangible change—the installation of electricity in their camps.


Migrant Bean Pickers working in field, Arkansas, 1961
©Steve Schapiro: Migrant Bean Pickers, Arkansas, 1961


An activist as well as documentarian, Schapiro covered many stories related to the Civil Rights movement, including the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the push for voter registration and the Selma to Montgomery march. Called by Life to Memphis after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, Schapiro produced some of the most iconic images of that tragic event.


black and white photograph of Martin Luther King Marching for Voting Rights with John Lewis, Reverend Jesse Douglas, James Forman and Ralph Abernathy, Selma, 1965
©Steve Schapiro
Martin Luther King Marching for Voting Rights with John Lewis, Reverend Jesse Douglas, James Forman and Ralph Abernathy, Selma, 1965


In the 1970s, as picture magazines like Look folded, Schapiro shifted attention to film. With major motion picture companies as his clients, Schapiro produced advertising materials, publicity stills, and posters for films as varied as The Godfather, The Way We Were, Taxi Driver, Midnight Cowboy, Rambo, Risky Business, and Billy Madison. He also collaborated on projects with musicians, such as Barbra Streisand and David Bowie, for record covers and related art.

Schapiro’s photographs have been widely reproduced in magazines and books related to American cultural history from the 1960s forward, civil rights, and motion picture film. Monographs of Schapiro’s work include American Edge (2000); a book about the spirit of the turbulent decade of the 1960s in America, and Schapiro’s Heroes (2007), which offers long intimate profiles of ten iconic figures: Muhammad Ali, Andy Warhol, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, Ray Charles, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, James Baldwin, Samuel Beckett, Barbra Streisand and Truman Capote. Schapiro’s Heroes was the winner of an Art Directors Club Cube Award. Taschen released The Godfather Family Album: Photographs by Steve Schapiro in 2008, followed by Taxi Driver (2010), both initially in signed limited editions. This was followed by Then And Now (2012), Bliss about the changing hippie generation (2015), BOWIE (2016),

Misericordia (2016) an amazing facility for people with developmental problems, and in 2017 books about Muhammad Ali and Taschen’s Lucie award-winning The Fire Next Time with James Baldwin’s text and Schapiro’s Civil Rights photos from 1963 to 1968. At the time of his death, Schapiro was working on a book of his photographs of Andy Warhol (Taschen) and a book pairing his photographs alongside his son Theophilus’s photography.

Since the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s seminal 1969 exhibition, Harlem on my Mind, which included a number of his images, Schapiro’s photographs have appeared in museum and gallery exhibitions world-wide. The High Museum of Art’s Road to Freedom, which traveled widely in the United States, includes numerous of his photographs from the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr. Recent one-man shows have been mounted in Los Angeles, London, Santa Fe, Amsterdam, Paris. And Berlin. Steve has had large museum retrospective exhibitions in the United States, Spain, Russia, and Germany.

Schapiro continued to work in a documentary vein. His recent series of photographs have been about India, music festivals, the Christian social activist Shane Claiborne, and Black Lives Matter.

In 2017, Schapiro won the Lucie Award for Achievement in Photojournalism. Schapiro’s work is represented in many private and public collections, including the Smithsonian Museum, the High Museum of Art, the New York Metropolitan Museum, and the Getty Museum.

Steve is survived by his wife Maura Smith, his sons Theophilus Donoghue and Adam Schapiro, and his daughters Elle Harvey and Taylor Schapiro. 


Rest in power.


Friday, December 10, 2021

Voice of America: 98-Year-Old NYC Photographer Tony Vaccaro Shows Life as Is – From WWII to Today

 

Via Voice of America

December 9, 2021


98-year-old photographer Tony Vaccaro was a simple infantryman, but he unofficially photographed World War II for 272 days. Anna Nelson met with Vaccaro to talk about his role in documenting the war. Anna Rice narrates her story.









Thursday, November 25, 2021

Monroe Gallery of Photography: Tony Vaccaro 99th Birthday Exhibition

screen shot og :'Oiel de la Photographie feature on Tony Vaccaro exhibit



November 25, 2021

In what has become an annual tradition, Monroe Gallery of Photography presents a special exhibition celebrating the birthday of renowned photographer Tony Vaccaro – this year honoring his 99th birthday – on December 20.

The exhibit of over 40 photographs spans Tony’s 80-year career and features several never-before-exhibited photographs. Nearing age 99, Tony Vaccaro is one of the few people alive who can claim to have survived the Battle of Normandy and COVID-19.

As the world has endured nearly two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, the work of Tony Vaccaro serves as an antidote to man’s inhumanity; by focusing on the splendor of life, Tony replaced the images of horror embedded in his eyes from war’. Full post with slide show.


 

Thursday, March 11, 2021

"Life is Wonderful" exhibition presents Tony Vaccaro's 80-year prolific career for the first time in Finland

Via Helsingin Taidehalli


color photograph of young woman by orange tree
Photo: Tony Vaccaro: Anja with Oranges, Naples, Italy, 1965.
 Courtesy of Monroe Gallery of Photography and the Tony Vaccaro Studio.


Tony Vaccaro: Life is wonderful

5.6. - 8.8.2021

Photographs by Tony Vaccaro (b. 1922, U.S.) dive into the moods and a few seconds of past worlds.

The Life is Wonderful exhibition presents iconic fashion and lifestyle images by an internationally renowned photographer from the 1950s and 1970s. In addition to the glamour of New York, the pictures show a nostalgic summer atmosphere from Finland; The art hall also features the atmospheric Marimekko photos of Porvoo and Helsinki taken by Vaccaro in the summer of 1964 for LIFE magazine. The visit became special for the artist: Vaccaro met his future wife, Anja Kyllikki Lehto, who modelled for Marimekko.

In Tadehall, Helsinki, Vaccaro's nearly 80-year prolific career is presented with 130 photographs. In addition to fashion images, the exhibition will feature several photographs of visual artists and public figures. The first images of Vaccaro's career, known for his war photographs, of the battles of The Second World War in Germany and France, as well as a selection of shots of post-war European moods during the reconstruction period, are also on display.

The Life is Wonderful exhibition presents Tony Vaccaro's production for the first time in Finland. The exhibition is carried out in collaboration with Tony Vaccaro Studio, Monroe Gallery and Marimekko.


 Tickets and more information here.

View the Tony Vaccaro collection of fine art prints here.

Saturday, March 6, 2021

History through the camera lens: A Houston man's life work documents some of the biggest moments of the 20th century

 Via KHOU-11

Author: Mia Gradney

Published:  March 5, 2021


Bob Gomel is now 87 years old and describes himself as a travel photographer, but for decades, he documented some historic moments in history.


 


HOUSTON — A recent movie release, "One Night In Miami," is a fictional account of one incredible evening shared by four icons of the civil rights movement, but a Houston man was actually there that night to capture it all with his camera.

Bob Gomel is a famous and award-winning photographer. Gomel is now 87 years old and describes himself as a travel photographer, but for decades, he documented some historic moments in history.

"The '60s were an iconic decade," Gomel said. "We didn't know it at the time, but look what we had besides Ali. We had the Beatles. We had John Kennedy. My goodness, at the time, this was just normal. But when you look back on it, wow! So much had happened."

Gomel, a photojournalist for the legendary LIFE magazine, took photographs of monumental moments involving icons.

His first cover was in 1964 of a young African-American boxer, Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, on the eve of his career defining fight against Sonny Liston. Gomel met up with Ali in Miami for training, the fight and more. He was there to also experience and document the victory celebration that included another iconic figure Malcolm X.

The photograph that captured Ali and Malcolm X together is now part of the Library of Congress. More recently it's been reimagined in a new movie, one Gomel has seen for himself. But who needs to see it when you were there?

Gomel describes part of the excitement of that night, saying, "Malcolm, who was a devoted amateur photographer, was behind the counter taking pictures of Ali. And this prompted me to climb up on top of the counter to get an overview of what was going on. I couldn't be at the same level to do that properly. So I'm standing on top of the counter and photographs. And then what happened is that Ali proceeded to entertain the crowd. He pretended to be a matador with his arm gestures like he was holding a, you know, curtain and he was, of course, his lyrics in his rhyming was superb."

"It was quite a show he put on for his crowd," Gomel said. "At some point, Malcolm came around, of course, from the counter and came behind to converse with Ali, whispered in his ear, and I have that photograph."

Gomel is now retired. Post pandemic he plans to resume his travels and his breathtaking photography from afar.

He's recently been featured in a documentary, "Bob Gomel: Eyewitness to History," available on Amazon's Prime Video.


View Bob Gomel's collection of available fine art prints here.




Monday, February 1, 2021

Bob Gomel's work endures from Life magazine to ‘One Night in Miami’

black and white photo of Malcolm X photographing Cassius Clay, in a diner in Miami, 1964

Malcolm X takes a photograph of Cassius Clay -- who was about to announce his conversion to Islam and his new name, Muhammad Ali -- on February 25, 1964 in Miami. Malcolm X was staying at The Hampton House Motel, where he spoke with Ali, singer Sam Cooke and football star Jim Brown. The photo was captured for LIFE magazine by Bob Gomel.

Photo: photo by Bob Gomel used with permission


 Via The Houston Chronicle

By Andrew Dansby

February 1, 2021

Near the end of the film “One Night in Miami,” Cassius Clay — hours after defeating Sonny Liston and declaring himself king of the world … and so pretty — holds shop in a small diner at the Hampton House Motel over a bowl of ice cream.

“I want a picture with Malcolm!” he says, referring to Malcolm X, who had advocated for the boxer’s conversion to Islam, which yielded a new name: Muhammad Ali.

The film follows Malcolm X for a meditative moment. A dangerous power struggle was in place amid the Nation of Islam, and he had only one year to live. But Clay, in that moment, got his photo.

Life magazine photographer Bob Gomel — the only member of the media inside the diner — caught the champ at the counter, a look of feigned surprise with Malcolm X leaning on his shoulder seemingly enjoying the moment of celebration.

Gomel captured several enduring images from the fight and its aftermath. One included Malcolm X behind the counter taking a photo of a tuxedo-clad Ali. That iconic photo has been acquired by the Library of Congress. Both the photo and the evening have taken on significant cultural weight. The fight and the meetings that followed were caught on film by Gomel and have been written about in biographies of Ali, Malcolm X and Cooke. That one night has become almost mythical, as it saw the rise of a cultural icon in Ali, lending itself to a play that would become a film.

As for Gomel, he’d made a fleeting moment permanent, something he’d done before and would do many times later as a storied and celebrated photojournalist whose work covered presidents and presidential funerals, Olympians in action and the Beatles on a beach.

“I’d suggest the challenge is to do something better than had been done before,” Gomel says, “That was something instilled in me early in my career. When I was just starting my career, I had an editor at Life. I came back and said some event didn’t happen. And he said he didn’t ever want to hear that. After that, I never batted an eye about doing what it took to get a photograph.”

Film on film

David Scarbrough, a professional photographer, met Gomel through mutual friends and colleagues. He’s been in Houston for more than 20 years; Gomel moved here in 1977.

Any time the two would meet, Gomel would share his stories about working at Life from 1959 to 1969. Gomel resisted the idea of putting down those stories as text to accompany the photos in a coffee-table book. So Scarbrough pitched the idea of a film.

“I convinced him to do a proof of concept, and if he didn’t like it, we’d drop it,” Scarbrough says.

Using two iPhones and a makeshift sound studio behind his house, Scarbrough got Gomel to tell the tales behind some of his most famous photos.

Those interviews became the basis of “Bob Gomel: Eyewitness,” available to stream on Amazon, in which the photographer narrates his career, a mix of his photographs and his on-camera commentary. Occasionally, Scarbrough throws in an outside image, as from the first Ali/Liston fight. When Scarbrough called up the fight on YouTube, he thought he saw a familiar face in the bedlam that followed Ali’s win.

“I blew it up, and it was grainy, but there’s Bob on the other side of the ring, climbing the ropes to get the shot. I had to work that in.”

That shot becomes part of a theme throughout the film. Gomel discusses his terror shooting Olympic bobsledders from a bobsled. He is photographed in a wetsuit immersed in a pool to capture a swimmer doing the butterfly. Gomel’s photo presents the swimmer as a human wavelength, her body contorted in a way both beautiful and grotesque.

One of the most fascinating passages includes two presidential funerals. From an elevated space, Gomel photographed President John F. Kennedy’s casket in the Capitol rotunda in 1963. His image is haunting for the light beaming across the rotunda. Gomel that day made a mental note that a direct overhead photograph in the rotunda could be striking. When President Dwight D. Eisenhower died six years later, Gomel rigged a camera directly overhead.

“Everybody knows that photo,” Scarbrough says. “It was a significant moment captured by a well-executed photograph. But people don’t know the preparation to get the picture. The hours and hours of testing. This was before our digital age. You had to string the camera out, bring it back, test lenses. The prep work was incredible.”

Gomel had another concern. “I prayed my lights didn’t start flashing before the event.

“I always draw a distinction. I say you can take a picture or you can make a picture. My objective was always to make pictures. To have some idea of what you’re trying to achieve and then figure out the best way to do that.”

Life behind the camera

Gomel grew up in the Bronx, where his interest in photography began when he was still in grade school. He delivered groceries to make money for his first camera and set up a darkroom in his parents’ home. He earned a journalism degree from New York University before spending three years stationed in Japan as an aviator in the Navy. He says landing planes on an aircraft carrier created a certain fearlessness.

“I’ve never considered safe spaces when I’m working,” he says. “I’d stand on the struts of a helicopter and make sure my wide angle lens cleared the blades. But it never occurred to me to be concerned. A safety strap to the cockpit wall was all I needed.”

He was hired by Life magazine in 1959, “a childhood dream,” he says in the film.

Life at the time had a sterling reputation for its photojournalism. Gomel shot heads of state, athletes and celebrities.

The rush of images that passes in “Bob Gomel: Eyewitness” is astounding for both the richness of the individual photographs and the breadth of Gomel’s work. The photographs clearly stand alone, but the narratives that accompany them offer enrichment through context. A bust of a session with President Richard M. Nixon was salvaged a day later when Gomel returned with some brighter neckties. He also discusses his paintinglike photograph of Manhattan at night during a 1965 blackout, thought to be the first double-exposure image published as a news photo.

In the 1970s, Gomel began doing commercial photography, which led him to Houston. He’d worked closely with an advertising executive at Ogilvy who set up an office in Houston in the early 1970s when Shell relocated from New York.

“I came on a lark, and I liked what I saw,” he says.

He has made Houston his home ever since, working here and sometimes dispensing tough love to students. Long ago he hired now famed photographer Mark Seliger — who at the time was about to graduate from the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts — as an assistant.

“A month or two later, I fired him,” Gomel says. “He was too good. I told him to leave Houston and go where the big action was taking place. Fortunately, he took my advice.”

Back to Miami

Seliger is the sort of photographer who might typically appear in a documentary about an old master like Gomel. But Scarbrough had only completed the interviews with his subject when the pandemic shut down his work. So he let Gomel’s stories and his photographs tell the story, which he distributed through Amazon Video Direct.

After a short introduction, the film moves to February 1964, when Life sent Gomel to Miami and assigned him to Clay before he became Ali. Liston was favored 7-1, but Life wanted a Clay cover photo ready should he provide an upset.

Days before the fight, Gomel caught a sweat-soaked Clay smiling. The fight took place Saturday. By Monday, Gomel had a magazine cover.

But the aftermath of the fight proved interesting, too. Because he was assigned to Clay, Gomel traveled with the boxer’s entourage — which included Clay’s brother and Malcolm X — to the Hampton House in Brownsville because no South Beach hotel would accept Black guests.

Playwright Kemp Powers debuted “One Night in Miami” seven years ago. Powers was drawn to a meeting that took place after the fight, when Malcolm X, Clay, singer Sam Cooke and football star Jim Brown gathered in a room at the Hampton. His story, an imagined account of their conversation, springs from four prominent Black men at personal, vocational, cultural and spiritual crossroads. Clay would soon announce his new name and faith; Brown would leave the NFL for film; Malcolm X and Cooke would both become victims of violence.

Late last year, actor and filmmaker Regina King presented a filmed version through Amazon. The film plays with the timeline, flipping the sequence of the diner and the hotel room meeting. It also re-creates that scene from Gomel’s photo: Malcolm X behind the counter, camera in hand.

Gomel expresses frustration that nobody involved with the film reached out to him for licensing or even a credit. He resisted Life’s offers of insurance and equipment allowances to have rights to his photos revert back to him.

Re-creation of photographic moments isn’t unique to “One Night in Miami”; Netflix’s “The Crown” — to name just one TV show — is teeming with shots based on photographs.

Gomel has dealt with the issue before. He’s found the image on T-shirts, throw pillows and earrings.

“It’s new dealing with organizations that don’t do the right thing and contact you,” he says. Gomel recalls the estate of golfer Arnold Palmer securing a photo Gomel took for Palmer’s clothing line.

“That’s the way it was for 50 years,” he says. “People respecting traditions.”

So “Eyewitness” provides the story behind the photo behind the film.

“Just about everybody else in that context is long gone,” Gomel says. “I’m one of very few eye witnesses who was actually there.”

Monday, January 25, 2021

Hollywood Film Re-creates Bob Gomel's Iconic Photograph

 


Comparing photographs of scene from movie "One Night in Miami" with original Bob Gomel photo of Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) with Malcolm X

Via Bob Gomel Eyewitness

January 24, 2021


One Night in Miami is a movie streaming on Amazon Prime. The film, directed Regina King, is a fictional account based on a true story of the events after Cassius Clay defeated Sonny Liston in February 1964 in Miami.

As you can see in the images above, the movie is based on an actual photograph taken by Bob Gomel. Amazon Studios photographer Patti Perret painstakingly recreated the iconic photograph that appeared in LIFE Magazine.

In the actual picture Sam Cooke and Jim Brown are not in the image as they are in the picture by Perret. The movie is a fictional account based on actual events.

The picture by Bob is featured in the documentary (also streaming on Amazon Prime) Bob Gomel: Eyewitness, as is the entire story leading up and including the fight, as well as, the post fight celebration at The Hampton House where this image was taken.

Bob Gomel owns the rights to the original image. Signed prints are sold through Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe, NM.

Bob was not consulted, credited, or compensated in any way in the making of the film or the recreation of the image.