Gordon Parks (1912-2006), Bandaged Hands, Muhammad Ali, 1966 In 1966, Life sent Parks to photograph boxer Muhammad Ali during training in Miami. The world heavyweight champion was then a controversial public figure, having recently changed his name from Cassius Clay and declared himself a conscientious objector to the war in Vietnam on religious grounds. His fists, wrapped in white bandages, seem to glow against the dark chair. Parks’s depiction of a private, introspective moment is a moving allusion to Ali’s status as a symbol of his time, a fighter who refused to fight

Photograph: Courtesy of and © The Gordon Parks Foundation