Ali Center Names Howard Bingham
Honorary Curator of Photographer

From Ali Center Newsletter, The Mentor, Fall 2004

The Ali Center has named and proudly announces Howard L. Bingham as its first Honorary Curator of Photography. This distinction comes from Howard’s
professional and personal dedication to documenting Ali’s adult life—as a boxer, humanitarian, friend, and citizen of the world.

Bingham, who has been a close friend of Ali’s for forty-two years, has shot over a million photos of Ali— from every angle, in every expression, in every type of light, posed with young and old alike, in public events around the world, and in private moments at home.

Visitors of the Center will have the privilege of viewing some of Bingham’s best photography in the Howard L. Bingham Gallery.

Michael Fox, president and chief executive officer of the Ali Center says that, “We are privileged to honor Howard in these permanent ways as recognition of the uniqueness of this man, himself. Howard has not just been with Muhammad in nearly every setting imaginable; he has been there for Muhammad – a sign of the truest and most genuine of friendships.

To this day, in everything Howard is involved in with Muhammad, he is so to ensure that all is occurring in the very best interest of Muhammad and in keeping with the values and ideals that they both share.

The Center hopes to emulate Howard’s ability to manage every possible obstacle with tenacity and persistence, with vision and insightfulness. Just as the Center will be an extension of Muhammad’s legacy, so will it be of Howard’s extraordinary career of recording vibrant political events, magnificent sport achievements, and radical social
transformations – all of them episodes that have forever changed the history of our country.”

“I can think of no bigger gift I can give to the world,” says Bingham, “because Ali belongs to the world. I have been a lucky guy to have had the privilege and honor all these years of photographing my friend. I only wish I had known that the Cassius Clay I met in 1962 would become the Muhammad Ali he is today.”

Bingham, a member of the Center’s National Advisory Council, is an accomplished
artist and a celebrity in his own right. As a freelance photographer, he has been under
contract with Life and Sports Illustrated, and his work has also appeared in People, Look, Newsweek, TV Guide, Playboy, Ebony, and in numerous international publications. He is the principal photographer and editorial consultant for G.O.A.T., was the Executive Producer and consultant of the recent Ali movie starring Will Smith, and also recently had the distinctive honor of representing all photographers —professional and amateur— worldwide at Kodak’s “Tribute to George Eastman” in recognition of the 150th anniversary of Eastman’s birth.

Bingham currently divides his time between commercial assignments and documentary projects. He resides in Los Angeles.