The State University of New York at Fredonia is hosting an exhibition entitled “Muhammad Ali – The Photographs of Sonia Katchian” at Reed Library on the Fredonia campus. The show will opened February 1 and will end February 28 as part of the college’s Black History Month events. The public can view the exhibit during Reed Library’s regular hours of Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 1 a.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday 1 p.m. to 1 a.m.
The exhibit features 44 prints of Ali that world-renowned photographer Sonia Katchian took throughout Ali’s career, including behind-the-scenes photos of the Champ from all over the world with family and friends. Katchian was the first female photographer credentialed to shoot a major championship fight at ringside. Most of the Ali photos are in black and white and many have never been published. Those that have been published originally appeared in Sports Illustrated in the 1970s.
Katchian is the first woman photographer to have been hired by The New York Post. She is co-author of Woman See Woman, an anthology of women photographers in the U.S. Her photographs appear in the Smithsonian, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and CitiGroup, as well as other private and public collections. Her photos of Muhammad Ali are on display at the new Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, KY.
At the exhibit, patrons will have the opportunity to purchase “The Ali Folio,” a limited edition boxed set of 14 prints, sized 24” x 30” and printed on archival watercolor paper and housed in a custom-made storage case. The edition is limited to just 50 copies and sells for $9,000 each. A portion of all “Folio” sales will benefit the Hayti Heritage Center in Durham, N.C., the International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro, N.C., and the Stone Center for Black Culture at the University of North Carolina.
