The magazine of the art-form of the photo-essay
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Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film & documentary maker
Oct 2015 back issue
by George Bennett
In the late 70s, like many other young NYC photographers, I was living and working in rough loft space, in my case
just off 6th Ave in the flower district. A couple of blocks away was a boxing club, the Solar, which I would occasionally
duck into with the thought that I might take lessons. Inside, at the far end of a dingy room full of boxers of all ages
punching bags and jumping rope, was a ring. One day, sitting on a stool in that ring, was Emile Griffith, former
welterweight champion, being tended to by the legendary trainer Gil Clancy. I never did take lessons but began to take
lots of pictures.
First, of the Solar and its inhabitants, then club fights in places like Sunnyside Gardens in Queens, then various Golden
Gloves amateur fights culminating with the finals at Madison Square Garden where a kid from the Solar (who I had
been following from the start) got annihilated in the heavyweight division by a much older man. Finally I shot a pro
heavyweight fight at the Beacon Theater between two unknowns Sharkey and Weaver. Remarkably, one of those
fighters, Mike Weaver, was two years later to knock out Larry Holmes in MSG and briefly become Heavyweight
Champion of the world.
Later the pictures were to become a book Fighters Doubleday, 1978 for which the legendary Pete Hamill agreed to
write the text. As Howard Cosell says in one of the blurbs on the back: “When Pete Hamill writes about fighters- nobody
does it better.” The long-out-of-print book also had blurbs by Norman Mailer, Jose Torres, and George Plimpton- which
was pretty heady stuff for a photographer who was then attempting to make a living shooting forgettable fashion and
beauty. But some of the prints (which collectors still seem interested in) ended up in various group shows over the
years as well as in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art. A camera can take you to
many places.
