Dave Mondy of the Iowa Review has written a 50th anniversary story on Neil Leifer's photo
of Muhammad Ali's knockout of Charles "Sonny" Liston in Lewiston, Maine.
Those obsessed with equipment will be interested to learn that Leifer used a Rollieflex loaded with Ektachrome color film and the image was exposed with external strobes. However, the story re-emphasizes that Leifer got lucky with his choice of equipment, location and timing, for an image that was initially rejected by Sports Illustrated.
Mondy's story also re-emphasizes the nearly identical Associated Press photo that was more widely distributed at first.
The key point of the story applies to any sports photographer who is obsessed with control of an event. The lesson is that success can be a coincidence and luck and preparation count for as much as equipment.
As always, a sporting event controls the photographer, and not the other way around.
