Muhammad Ali 1942–2016

In 1969, the photographer Garry Winogrand received a Guggenheim Fellowship to record the “effect of the media on events.” The boxer Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Clay, proved a perfect subject for Winogrand’s project. Ali’s catchy lines did not disappoint, as seen from the smiling faces of the journalists and photographers surrounding him at a press conference for his December 7, 1970, bout with the Argentine pugilist Oscar Bonavena.

A master of public relations, Ali had pushed staff at Madison Square Garden in New York City to make the fight accessible “so that all the policemen, firemen, postmen, stevedores, taxi drivers, truck drivers and winos, all the people who can’t afford more than $10 can see the beauty fight the beast.” Several live broadcasts across New York City and Long Island made it possible for countless individuals to join the arena’s crowd in watching Ali defeat Bonavena in the fifteenth round.

From the portfolio 15 Big Shots
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution