Book Review: Ballet in the Dirt by Neil Leifer

When I get my haircut I look up at the wall and see the work of Neil Leifer. His famous photo of Muhammad Ali standing over Sonny Liston in 1965 hangs on the wall. I saw a video on Fro Knows Photo about his football book called Guts and Glory. I went out on the web to look for it, but it was a bit too pricey for a coffee table book. I understand how prints can be worth money, but books full of photos I have a hard time paying for. While searching for the football book though I came across this one at a reasonable price. I immediately bought the book before it was sold out. I will not regret that decision. 

The book concentrates on the early years that Neil shot baseball. Early in the book you have shots of my father’s favorite player Minnie Minoso. The book then slowly turns toward the 70’s where my favorite player Carlton Fisk appears. Before reading this book I knew one of the photos very well, but I did not know who made the photo. My WordPress icon for years has been the photo above of Carlton Fisk tagging out Lou Pinella at home plate. This was just one of a series of photos of this plate at the plate turned brawl. It was great to see that my photo was a part of this great series by a fantastic photographer.

This book shows you what a great sports photographer can do. You see shots like the one above that show the action up close and personal. You also get shots like the one on the cover of the book that let you in on what is going on, but show you enough of the stadium so that you get a sense of place. That is where this book excels. Looking through it you can’t help but to feel nostalgic for the old days of baseball. The old stadiums and players just seem to come alive. This book will have a prominent place on my book shelf for many years to come.

Neil Leifer Video

I liked the idea of including a video in the last book review. When you can see and hear the author it sometimes lets you into his world a bit more. While I don’t have a video where he talks about this book exclusively, I think that this one will do just fine. Just seeing the many great photos that he has taken in his time is impressive.

Photo Sale!

Over at my SmugMug site I have cut the price on all of my photos for the summer. If you visit my site at pinolaphotography.com you can order any item that I sell for 50% off from now until Labor Day. Just use the coupon code ‘summer’ at the checkout.

50% Off