Sports photography legend Neil Leifer talks about life’s work at retrospective show

Via The Baltimore Sun

Famed photographer Neil Leifer – whose iconic photography is currently on exhibit at the  Sports Legends Museum, – will tell you without hesitation, which of his many photographs is his favorite picture taken during his illustrious career. And it’s not one you might expect.

 

Full article with slideshow here.

 

 

The 54-picture photography exhibit “Images We Remember-The World of Neil Leifer continues through October 2014 at Sports Legends Museum. The museum will host a Behind the Lens event with Leifer September 28, where he will discuss his photography career, the transition to producing directing films and answer audience questions.

"I always think that if I had had any money and any decent equipment, I would never have taken that picture"

Neil Leifer:  Alan Ameche TouchdownN.Y. Giants vs. Baltimore Colts, NFL Championship Game
Yankee Stadium, Bronx, N.Y., December 28, 1958

"There is a picture of Alan Ameche scoring the winning touchdown in what has been referred to as "the greatest game ever played". It was the famous sudden death between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants, which coincidentally took place on my 16th birthday, December 28th 1958. When Alan Ameche scored the winning touchdown there were so many Colt’s fans, (mainly drunken Colt’s fans) on the field that the security had their hands full just making sure that they could keep those people off the field. They weren’t worried about someone like me that they had seen every week. So I ended up exactly ten yards in front of Ameche as he scored the winning touchdown. He came right at me and I got that picture, which today, is certainly one of my best-known pictures. I always think that if I had had any money and any decent equipment, I would never have taken that picture because, if I would have had a long lens, a 135mm or a 180mm, I would have tried to fill the frame with Ameche going in for the winning touchdown. Instead I got the wide shot that takes in the whole ambiance of Yankee Stadium that afternoon which is so much better than any picture I would have taken years later when I was an established pro." -- Neil Leifer

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