Neil Leifer

Photographer
Neil Leifer

Neil Leifer‘s photography career has spanned almost 50 years. Best known for his sports photography, Leifer’s images have regularly appeared in many major national magazines, including the Saturday Evening Post, Look, LIFE, Newsweek, People and, most often, TIME and Sports Illustrated. Leifer’s pictures have graced over 200 covers of Time Inc. publications – 170 at Sports Illustrated and 40 at TIME.

Leifer has published 15 books, including Ballet in the Dirt: The Golden Age of Baseball and Guts and Glory: The Golden Age of American Football 1958-1978. Leifer photographed his favorite subject, Muhammad Ali, on at least 70 separate occasions, including 35 fights. Leifer is now a full-time filmmaker. He has produced and / or directed two features, five documentaries and eight short films.

As of March 17, 2010

On The Web

neilleifer.com

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Featured Photographs

  • Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY, December 28, 1958 In 1958, I started going to Yankee Stadium every Sunday for Giants home games. I couldn’t afford a ticket, but I discovered that about an hour before game time, buses from a veterans’ hospital pulled up outside the stadium with forty or fifty veterans in wheelchairs. They always needed people to help wheel the veterans into the stadium. I volunteered, quickly becoming a regular. We would position the wheelchairs up against the center field wall, a few feet behind the end zone. Under my coat, I always had my Yashica-Mat camera. On my sixteenth birthday, December 28, 1958, I found myself standing ten yards directly in front of Alan Ameche as he scored the winning touchdown in that famous “Sudden Death” game. What a wonderful birthday present! -- A picture that even today, fifty-one years later, is unquestionably one of my very best.
    Alan Ameche Touchdown, New York Giants vs Baltimore Colts, NFL Championship Game
    Photo by: Neil Leifer
  • Shea Stadium, Flushing, NY, November 24, 1974 The Jets were playing the Buffalo Bills, and the Bills’ O.J. Simpson was only a few yards away from breaking the all-time NFL rushing record. My assignment was to focus on O.J. for the whole game. As it turned out, I “got lucky” and got a great picture of O.J.’s record-breaking run, which ran as the opening spread in Sports Illustrated that week. However, late in the game during a time-out, I turned towards the Jets bench. There was Joe Namath on the phone, perhaps twenty or thirty feet away from me. He was covered from head-to-toe in mud. Maybe he was just trying to “get lucky” after the game. I quickly forgot about O.J., turned my camera on Namath and shot until I had finished whatever number of frames were left in the camera. I knew I had a memorable picture the minute I took it.
    Joe Namath in the Mud, New York Jets Quarterback - NY, November 24, 1974
    Photo by: Neil Leifer
  • Orlando, FL, January 1992 Kristi Yamaguchi was the perfect subject for this posed picture. She scratched an “x” on the ice and landed her jump right on that spot on every attempt. I took the picture at the Olympic trials in Orlando, Florida, January 1992. Kristi went on to win the gold medal at the XVI Olympic Winter Games in Albertville, France.
    Kristi Yamaguchi - Orlando, FL, January 1992
    Photo by: Neil Leifer
  • Griffith Stadium, Washington, DC, April 10, 1961 I was eighteen years old and the idea of sitting twenty feet in front of the President was more thrilling than shooting any baseball game could ever be. Unfortunately, by the third or fourth inning, it was clear that I hadn’t yet gotten any memorable pictures. I’d hoped that Kennedy would do something to make a good picture. He might eat a hot dog and end up with a little mustard on his lip. Johnson ate one, but he wasn’t the subject I was there to shoot. Kennedy didn’t order a dog, but he donned a fedora – which was not a bad picture. Finally, I got lucky when a foul ball came dangerously close to the presidential box, causing the President, Vice President, and Democratic and Republican leaders from both houses of Congress to all lean to the left. Surely it was the most bipartisan moment of 1961.
    President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Opening Day
    Photo by: Neil Leifer
  • Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY, October 4, 1961
    World Series 1961, Game 1, Cincinnati Reds vs. New York Yankees
    Photo by: Neil Leifer
  • Memorial Stadium, Baltimore, MD, May 31, 1960
    Casey Stengel, Arguing with Umpire, New York Yankees vs. Baltimore Orioles
    Photo by: Neil Leifer
  • Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, CA, October 6, 1963
    Sandy Koufax After Winning the 4th and Final Game of the 1963 World Series
    Photo by: Neil Leifer
  • Stanford Stadium, Palo Alto, CA, July 22, 1962
    Wilma Rudolph, Winning the 100 Meter Dash, U.S. vs. U.S.S.R. Track Meet
    Photo by: Neil Leifer
  • Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, Mexico, June 21,1970
    Pelé, Brazilian Soccer Star after Winning the World Cup
    Photo by: Neil Leifer
  • Churchill Downs, Louisville, KY, May 1, 1965
    Kentucky Derby
    Photo by: Neil Leifer
  • Churchill Downs, Louisville, KY, March 5, 1973
    Secretariat, Winning the Kentucky Derby
    Photo by: Neil Leifer
  • St. Dominic’s Arena, Lewiston, ME, May 25, 1965 Muhammad Ali KO’d Sonny Liston with one punch two minutes into the first round of their heavyweight championship fight in Lewiston, Maine. A two-minute fight is surely a major disappointment for fans who pay dearly for tickets, but for photographers, it really doesn’t matter whether the fight lasts fifteen rounds or fifteen seconds. The first thing any picture editor looks for is a great picture of the final knockout. In Lewiston, that knockout happened exactly where I had hoped it would. I instantly knew that I was in the perfect spot on the apron when Liston went down. My only thought was, “Stay right there, Sonny! Please don’t get up!” A sports photographer must get lucky enough to be in the right spot at the right time. Obviously that was the case in Lewiston on that night. What I’m proudest of is that on that night, I didn’t miss.
    Muhammad Ali vs. Sonny Liston - St. Dominic’s Arena, Lewiston, ME, May 25, 1965
    Photo by: Neil Leifer
  • Araneta Coliseum, Quezon City, Philippines, October 1, 1975
    Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier
    Photo by: Neil Leifer
  • Atlantic City, NJ, June 1988
    Mike Tyson, Heavyweight Boxing Champion
    Photo by: Neil Leifer
  • Baltimore Colts vs. Washington Redskins Baltimore, MD, December 13, 1964
    Johnny Unitas, Hall of Fame Baltimore Colts Quarterback
    Photo by: Neil Leifer
  • Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY, December 14, 1958
    New York Giants on the Bench, New York Giants vs. Cleveland Browns
    Photo by: Neil Leifer
  • Orange Bowl Stadium, Miami, FL, January 14, 1968
    Vince Lombardi, Green Bay Packers Coach, After Winning Super Bowl II
    Photo by: Neil Leifer
  • Wrigley Field, Chicago, IL, December 14, 1969
    Dick Butkus, Chicago Bears Middle Linebacker
    Photo by: Neil Leifer
  • Pittsburgh, PA, November 1971
    Terry Bradshaw, Pittsburgh Steelers Quarterback
    Photo by: Neil Leifer
  • Great Wall, China, December 1983
    Zhou Qiurui, Chinese Olympic Gymnast
    Photo by: Neil Leifer
  • Mount Fuji, Japan, November 1983
    Koji Gushiken, Japanese Olympic Gymnast
    Photo by: Neil Leifer
  • Queens, NY, 1978 Although 17-year-old Steve Cauthen only weighed 105 lbs., including saddle, helmet, boots and silks, he was as tough a competitor and athlete as any heavyweight champion I have ever photographed. I took this picture at Aqueduct Race Track in New York in 1978. Cauthen went on to win the Triple Crown that year.
    Steve Cauthen, Aqueduct Race Track
    Photo by: Neil Leifer
  • Davos, Switzerland, January 1980
    Eric and Beth Heiden, American Olympic Speed Skaters
    Photo by: Neil Leifer

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