HE MANAGED TO TALK MUHAMMAD ALI into sitting for a photograph with a magic trick. It took mischievousness, craft, planning and luck, but what he came away with was a luminous photograph where you can discern the old grace and speed – and the future that disease had for him. Does Ali understand that yet? You are not sure. Finally, you don’t just see him in his glory. It changed the way the world saw him.
As a voyeur – that is how you feel with so much of Steven’s work – it is painful to see. In another chapter, he goes into a charismatic faith church expecting to see the people who go to Dollywood, to chronicle their conversions and faith healing. He didn’t think he would be converted to anything (I am a Jew who grew up in New York he proclaims) and yet he wound up freely joining the world he was prepared to parody.
What is not included here is that after the tortuous death of his wife, he went on pilgrimage to experience the concentration camps, following the path of his relatives. He created startling pictures of binned, endless piles of shoes and of hair and gawking tourists. The book is called Zichronot.
Steven is large man with large presence. He is funny. Reflective. And inquisitive — at times I felt he was interviewing me. You feel you are meeting someone who has been to some extraordinary places — some great, some horrifying — and that if he trusts you, he might tell you about them.
You have a famous portrait of Muhammad Ali. How did that come about?
I’m in New York, and I call a gentleman who had just written a seminal piece on Muhammad Ali. I called him up, I called him cold. And I said, listen, I’m doing a project on boxing. Perhaps you can somehow put me in touch with Muhammad Ali. And he says, I really can’t give you his phone number but I’ll give you his address and I can tell you that if you’re going to send him photographs, make sure you have children, because he loves children.
So I send the portfolio to him, waiting and waiting. A year goes by and then I get the phone call – Muhammad Ali has agreed to let you take his portrait. My wife Sharon and I go to his farm on a hill, stone walls. We go up to the main house, two Dobermanns are running around. We walk into the living room,
which is a converted restored barn. It’s really beautiful. He’s got this Hitachi rear projected screen and he’s watching Wheel of Fortune.
You can’t ignore his size; he’s very large. His hands are very large. And his skin, okay, this is a man who has been in the ring, what, 45, 50 times? But his skin is just so smooth. It’s beautiful, the tonality.
Anyway, I introduced myself, We’re here to take your portrait. He says, I didn’t say that you could take my portrait. So we came up all this way and now we’re fucked. But when I photograph the subject, I do as much research as I can. I knew that Muhammad Ali loved magic.
So, before we go out to his farm we’re having lunch and I ask the waitress, Is there a magic store in this town? And she goes, Well, of course there is. Right around the corner. I walk into the magic store, I need a magic trick. I don’t know anything about magic, but I’m going to go visit the Champ. What can you recommend? He goes, I’ve got the perfect trick for you. It’s the disappearing quarter.
The disappearing quarter? What’s that? He brings out a box of matches. He asks me for my quarter, drops the quarter in, closes the lid, opens the lid, the quarter is gone. I said, Sold! I’ll take it. I’ve got this little trick in my pocket.
Meanwhile, there’s nothing for us to do except to sit on the floor and watch Vanna White with the Champ. I said listen, I wanna ask you a personal question. What do you think of Malcolm X? He says, He was my friend, and I let him down, and I’ll never forgive myself.
Perfect timing to bring out the matchbook trick. I show him there’s nothing in there. I put the quarter in, hand it to him, open it up. Empty. Now he’s mine!
He walks into the den and gets a large tackle box. He brings this tackle box, opens it up, and it’s one that has three tiered levels on each side, and its filled with magic tricks. And he entertains us for a full hour of magic. I finally said, I said, we’ll see you tomorrow at nine o’clock. So we get there next morning and we’re using the dining room as a studio, and there’s this baby running around in a diaper. I later find out that’s his son. Probably seven, about eight months. Muhammad wants pictures with his son. I’m taking pictures of the Champ with his son, of which I have two contact sheets that have never been printed. Even the photograph of Ali didn’t see light until perhaps ten years later. I didn’t think it was something that I was proud of.
You’re not proud of it? This picture has become a classic, showing Ali in his middle way, the next chapter which followed from the glory pictures: The young untouchable Cassius Clay with that high destiny glare taunting Liston. Then the hardened gladiator trading murderous punches with Joe Frazier. Or finally, the picture of death-defying wizard standing victorious, over a fallen Goliath named George Forman. Are you proud of it now?
I’m very proud of it. The picture is in my house, I talk to him, you know, what would Muhammad do? You know? I’m right here, and he’s up on the wall, and he’s looking down at me, then I’ll walk maybe ten feet, do a chore or something. And the eyes are following me. It’s very strange.
Let’s talk about your book The Face of Forgiveness.
I saw an ad in the paper, Come see the crippled walk, the blind see, and the deaf hear, come to the Miracle Tent, I’m thinking, sure, that’s a photo op! And so I went to this tent in the parking lot at the Ed Smith Stadium, Sarasota, Florida. Hello, brother. Welcome. A lot of bad dental work and a lot of polyester. I walked in and everyone’s clapping and jumping. I was in the Miracle Tent.
The pastor looks like a bad Elvis impersonator. Polyester suit, kind of something you wear at the prom. And he leans down with his microphone, and says, Do you believe that faith has no religion? And I looked up at him and I said, Yes. I’ve been looking for that one. And I said, Yes, I believe. And the shit hit the fan.
I don’t know if they were aware that I was Jewish. I felt a kind of a burden leave my body. But what Jew has this kind of faith? I felt at that moment that I could navigate where I was going. Not that I knew where I was going.
What happened next?
I was told to go to Pensacola. I gave Pensacola a call, I’m the Jew in Sarasota, documenting revival, I’d like to come up there. So I drive up to Pensacola. Seats about 2,500, main chapel, and it’s August, Florida, hot, there is a line around
the building. I am seeing an energy in this church different from the tent. I’m seeing people jumping and hollering in mass, and the music’s pretty good too. I hear this wailing, this screaming, and I look over, and there’s this minister who’s laying hands, and these people are flying, okay?
When you say flying, what do you mean?
When I say flying, the minister’ll come up to you, and he’ll be praying for you, and you won’t just drop, you leave your feet …You’re physically, you’re just blown out. What happens is that energy travels in this circle, because he’s the eye of the storm, and people are being affected. This is crazy, okay? And he just goes, boom, boom. I’m in awe. I go downstairs, the main door to the sanctuary is closed. All of a sudden, these doors blow open. They hit the sides of the walls in such a force that the stops don’t stop them.
And here comes the pastor. He’s got this whole group of parishioners following him. I’m right there, and I say to myself, I will believe whatever he says, regardless in whose name it is. He walks up to me, and he looks at me, and he takes his hands and he cups my face, In the name of Jesus Christ, and I just drop out. I sit up, and there’s this field of prone bodies. There’s woman, her name, I think, was Kathy. And I’m sobbing. She says, Stephen, let the Lord work through you, let the Lord work through you. Well, the Lord is synonymous with Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit. I said, Let’s get this straight. I don’t need working through the Lord. Okay? Bar Mitzvah boy, circumcised boy, Jew boy, I don’t need this. And I stand up, I go into the corner, sit on a chair while all this shit is still out. And I’m going, What the fuck just happened? Night ends. I call my wife. How you doing? She says, Well, the good news is there’s a Krispy Kreme right down the street from the church with the red light on.” So I stopped by there before I went to the hotel. I was just prayed for. Don’t understand it. But it felt good.
So now, round two. Second night. Sermon is Die Right. Okay, easy.
Die right means what?
It means, if you’re taken right now, are you ready to meet your maker? Are you ready to sit next to the Son of God? Enter the throne room? You know what, yeah, right, okay. Die right. I’m not ready to die right. I need to make amends. I need to ask for forgiveness. All these people were there asking for forgiveness. And I’m sitting there on my haunches, and it’s like somebody came with all of their force physically and slammed my head into the concrete. It obviously frightened me.
I sat back up, thought life was pretty good, and it happened again. I’m looking around when I got back up because I thought somebody actually slammed me down. You’re not ready. No. This is very traumatic, along with all these other people. I sat back up again. I’m not aware of what’s happening on stage, which is the ushers are descending upon me. But I’m involved with my shooting and the pastor on stage waved them off.
Then at Brownsville Revival School of Ministry in Pensacola, we were in a school that night around midnight, they had all come back from ministering on the street, and there was a pastor and he was talking, and, What ails you?
Well, I’ve got a sore throat.
Okay, let’s pray for the sore throat.
This happened when they announced during the service that four parishioners in Texas were murdered, were killed. Okay? This is the response. They’re praying for sore throats.
And then this woman says, I have cancer. And the shit hits the fan including yours truly. Finally we’re getting something to pray about, to me, defining of some sense of importance.
But this pastor is an exorcist. This guy, bad news.
Brownsville, that was a big turning point in terms of me seeing another side.
I’m questioning the success of a miracle, what they’re seeing, being caught up in the moment. But bottom line, the only miracle was me.
The miracle is what was changed in you?
Yes.
Are these conversions, these transformations, still real for you?
Yes.
Learn more at StevenKatzman.com
SUBSCRIBE TO SANTA FE MAGAZINE HERE!
Photo Barbara Banks
