Not all of Chris Smith’s photographs of Muhammad Ali were made inside the gym. His dawn-running photographs place training in the open landscape of Miami Beach, with palms and the early light shaping the scene.
Training in a wider landscape
In The Greatest, Smith recalls photographing Ali’s early-morning preparation for the first Joe Frazier fight. The book’s caption index identifies the dawn-running scene as Miami Beach in February 1971. This is a different period from the Beatles visit in 1964.
The image invites a slower look: the runner’s position, the surrounding trees and the balance between figure and landscape. It records preparation without the crowd and equipment that define the gym pictures.
Compare the photographs
View Muhammad Ali Dawn Run for the available photograph and its enquiry form. Compare it with Skipping to Countdown and the wider account of Chris Smith’s photographs at the 5th Street Gym.
Read The Greatest: the book and its contributors for publication context. Recollections are useful source material, but we do not reproduce the book’s dialogue or treat a still image as evidence of an entire conversation.
Explore the prints
Browse the Muhammad Ali print collection. Muhammad Ali limited editions start from £2,200. Use the enquiry form on an individual print page to confirm availability, edition, signature details, sizes, framing and delivery. A photographer’s signature is not an autograph by the subject.
Reference: The Greatest (GOST Books, 2024), photographs and short texts by Chris Smith, with essays by Alon Zakaim and Paolo Hewitt. This article is original editorial writing, not an extract from the book.