An artist who inspired my work is Gordon Parks who is a well-known American photographer. Something that particularly inspired me was his sports photography. I instantly fell in love with his style of storytelling through his photography. I loved his composition, camera angles, contrast, depth of field, and his variety of subjects. A specific series by Gordon Parks inspired my boxing photography project, Power Within, was Muhammad Ali 1966/1970. After coming up with the idea for my project, I started researching photographers for inspiration and came across his work.

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Since I was working with a subject who also does boxing, I instantly delved into his Muhammad Ali series. The use of black and white really helps the audience feel the drama and intensity that a boxer experiences, which is what inspired me to do the same. I also got inspiration from his camera angles and shot composition. For instance, I used a similar angle of my subject jump roping in Jump Rope II and when Muhammad Ali was jump roping in Untitled, Miami Beach, Florida, 1966. I also loved the use of depth of field in his photos, which inspired me to make my depth of field shallow in order to isolate Faith and draw focus on her training.

 

I captured similar boxing aspects as Gordon Parks. For example, I captured a picture of Faith shadow boxing that was inspired by Muhammad Ali shadow boxing. Another aspect that inspired me was when Parks captured Muhammad in the ring. Since I was unable to capture photos of Faith in the ring, I decided to get some of the same aspects in her home gym. Such as, Faith staying loose and punching the punching bag, which was inspired by Parks' pictures of Ali featured in a 1970 LIFE Magazine.