Howard Bingham:
Photographer, Friend and Entrepreneur

Bingham is a symbol for a whole community; he is a visual storyteller that with his love of life, perseverance and commitment documented the raising of his own people while photographing a crucial time in American history: the materialization of Black Pride and the fight for Civil Rights.

Howard Bingham has taken more than a million photographs of Muhammad Ali, his best friend and associate, over a period of 40 years. In addition to the champ, his oeuvre captures the social, political and cultural history of not only the United States, but many other places in the globe. His portfolio includes Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom X, the Black Panthers, the Beatles, the Dali Lama, Nelson Mandela and The Jackson Five, to name a few. He has been one of the first black photographers to work for Life magazine, and his works have been published in Time, Sports Illustrated, Look, People, Newsweek and Ebony.

Howard Bingham was born in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1939, the son of Reverend and Mrs. Willie E. Bingham. The family moved to Los Angeles when he was four and settled in South Central Los Angeles, where Bingham still lives today.

Bingham takes pride in his parents’ long marriage, over 42 years, only broken with his father’s passing in 1985. “They taught me right from wrong and to treat others the way I want to be treated.” “They also bought me my first camera, a Yashica Mat, from around 1959.” The oldest of seven children, he learned to take care of his younger siblings while becoming self-reliant. Despite his troublesome times as a student, he instills in his two sons the importance of an education: “work hard now, play later.”

Bingham was educated in California’s public schools, graduated from Centennial High in 1956, and enrolled as a music major at Compton Junior College—where he took piano lessons and played violin. After seeing his fellow students working for the school newspaper, he decided to take his first photography course. A couple of neighborhood photographers, La Vern and Myron Hodson, were becoming very well known around that time, and they had a big influence on Bingham. “They used to have beautiful girls around them, for photo and beauty contests, and I thought that photography could be fun and that it could allow me to meet a lot of people.”

And fun he had, so much that he completely dismissed his academic studies. After being expelled for failing most of his courses, he had to seek employment at a local grocery store.

Bingham then decided to hang around the Los Angeles Sentinel for a while, “just to watch how things worked.” Eventually, Cliff Hall, photo editor of the newspaper offered him an apprenticeship. At first, he was just running errands, until he began to take photos. As a condition, Hall was to keep half of his $60/week paycheck. With Hall’s guidance, Bingham’s photos chronicling the life of African Americans in Los Angeles became a regular feature in the newspaper.

In 1962, Bingham received the assignment to cover a news conference for a fight, Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) versus George Logan, at the Sports Arena. After introducing himself and taking a shot of the boxer, he left. Several hours later, Bingham ran into Ali and his brother on the street and offered them a ride; that was the beginning of an enduring friendship. “I have been very fortunate to be in the right place at the right time” Bingham declares. “That is the best thing that ever happened to me ... This has been the only job I have ever had. As Ali’s recognition grew, so did Bingham’s photographic skills and reputation. He accompanied Ali to nearly every public appearance, fight, and humanitarian trip, continuing still through this day.

In 1968 Life magazine assigned Bingham to cover the Black Panthers. “[Black] people like Eldridge Cleaver had heard about me. Cleaver demanded from Life Magazine that in order to participate in the story of the Panthers, I would have to photograph it.” Bingham spent over two months with them and has an entire file documenting the militant black organization that fought for civil rights. He took pictures of Huey P. Newton while in jail, Angela Davis, Stokeley Carmichael, Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver and his wife, Kathleen. “It was interesting being around them. In fact, the writer working with me, Gilbert Moore, was a middle class man that I had met in Los Angeles, and we flew to Oakland. We worked with the Panthers for over a month an-a-half, day and night. A selection of photos from this assignment are featured in CAAM’s current exhibition, “A Moment in Time: Bingham’s Black Panthers.”

Howard Bingham also covered other controversial and popular figures such as Malcom X or Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. When asked about the picture of Ali with Malcom X he answers: “That picture was taken in Harlem, New York, after Ali won the championship. We were heading towards the Teresa’s Hotel. The day was another day in Ali’s life; all his days were exciting.” Regarding the M.L.K., he explains: “I have some pictures taken a week before he was assassinated, made in Los Angeles at Second Baptist Church, Sunday afternoon. Next Sunday, he was killed in Memphis, Tennessee.”

Bingham met Bill Cosby in Los Angeles, on a set with Ali. Later, when Newsweek wanted to take a photo of Cosby, he asked the magazine to call Bingham. Through his many years with Cosby, Bingham became the family photographer. According to Cosby, Bingham has no particular technique, but he loves what he does, and what makes him unique is recognizing people’s idiosyncrasies.

In 2001, the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History in Los Angeles presented an exhibition on Ali’s visit to Zaire: Main Event: The Ali/Foreman Extravaganza through the Lens of Howard L. Bingham. The exhibition traveled to several sites nationwide, among them, the Smithsonian. Steven C. Newsome defined Bingham’s work as “poignant, knowing and rich with insight; uniquely composed, to serve simultaneously as documentary photography and intimate portraits.” ¹

In 1999, Bingham and Oliver Stone began to work together on a biographical film about Ali, with unsuccessful results. The movie “Ali,” was finally released in 2001. The producers were Jon Peters, James Lassiter, Paul Ardaji, Michael Mann, A. Kitman Ho and the film was directed by Michael Mann, with Howard Bingham as Executive Producer. It starred the prominent African American actor Will Smith as Ali and Jeffrey Wright as Bingham. The photographer adds proudly: “The movie scenes were set with my photographs in mind, photographs taken through the years.”

He received the “Photography of the Year Award” in 1997 from the American Society of Photographers, and more recently, Kodak has created the Kodak/Bingham scholarship at Rochester Institute of Technology. He is a trustee of the George Eastman House in Rochester and a board member of the Ali Center in Louisville. In September 2008 he was awarded the honor “Celebration of Leadership in the Fine Arts” from the Congressional Black Caucas in Washington, D.C. On October 30, 2008 he will be presented the “Lifetime Achievement Award” at The Jim Murray Memorial Foundation’s tenth anniversary event “A Tribute to Living Legends of Sports and Media” in Los Angeles.

A long life pursuing social justice and equality on Ali’s side led the photographer to try to make a difference himself. He has taught to inner city kids, instructing them in the importance of education, especially the benefits of a career in photography. He has been actively involved in the life of the Watts community since 1966. “I go there and I talk to the kids, I try to motivate them.”

In addition to his well-known role as Muhammad Ali’s photographer, Bingham is the champion’s purest and more honest devotee. In fact, Bingham considers that his visual archives and documentation on Ali are his most enduring legacy. In addition to the movie Ali, Bingham has worked on several photography books, among them Muhammad Ali, A Thirty-Year Journey (1993) and GOAT, The Greatest of All Times (2004). A Thirty-Year Journey includes 185 black and white photographs comprising 30 years of Ali’s life (1962-1992). Many of them are never seen before moments of the boxer’s life, some of them humoristic, others very personal.

The most recent project, GOAT: A Tribute to Muhammad Ali,, is a limited edition memorabilia tome of 800 pages, weighting 75 pounds. Published by Benedikt Taschen, this art book reflects the “larger than life” personality, life and career of Ali, as well as his popular appeal. The book includes over 3,000 photographs by different artists—with Bingham and Neil Leifer featured as main photographers, in addition to essays and excerpts from writers worldwide. A limited quantity of books –the first 1,000 copies—include four silver gelatin prints by Bingham, each individually autographed by Ali and Bingham, plus a contemporary art piece by American artist Jeff Koons.

Continuous experimentation with the photographic medium, daily hard work and life itself have all made Bingham who he is today. He has quietly recorded many years of vibrant political events, magnificent sport achievements, and radical social transformations that forged and changed forever the history of this country. Now, more than ever, his images talk to America and to the entire world through their directness and humanity. Despite his less than fortuitous beginnings, Bingham managed to challenge every possible obstacle with tenacity and persistence. With photographs, films, books and exhibitions, Howard L. Bingham resurfaces into the spot-light with visionary, insightful and exciting projects, to the delight of both novices and long time followers.

¹ Steven C. Newsome, director of the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture, presented the exhibition on January 19, 2002.