Page "Neil Leifer" Paragraph 11

* " I thought it was unprofessional to ask a subject for an autograph or to pose for a picture.

But when I got an office next to LIFE photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt, that all changed.

I'd visit him because I loved listening to his stories, and I started to notice his personal pictures -- Sophia Loren kissing him on the cheek, or a shot of him hanging out with Jack Kennedy, and I started thinking, ' One day I ’ m going to be an older guy, and I want to be able to show my grandkids what I did during my career.

' So from that point on, I ended every session with a picture of me and my subject.

This one, from 1966, is one of the very first.

I look at it now and I think about how lucky I've been to have photographed Ali for all these years, and to consider him a friend.

He is a very special human being.

He truly is.