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Howard Bingham is an American photographer, most notably known for chronicling the career of boxing legend Muhammad Ali.

Biography & Career
Bingham was born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1939, soon moving to Los Angeles with his parents at the age of four. Bingham attended Compton Junior College, initially failing a photography course.

Bingham left school, and apprenticed as a photojournalist for the Los Angeles Sentinel. During this apprenticeship Bingham honed his craft, stating "I went off on jobs, came back with underexposed film, blurred film, no  film--and I always had an excuse for what went wrong,". But, Bingham was eventually hired for the Sentinel, mainly photographing the life of black Los Angeles.

In 1962 Bingham met Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) after covering one of Clay's promotional events

Bingham's work has appeared in Time, Sports Illustrated, LIFE, Ebony- among others.

In 1968 Bingham was sent on assignment by LIFE to tell the story of the Black Panther party, where he was allowed intimate and unprecedented access.

After meeting Bill Cosby on the set of I Spy in 1970 through Cassius Clay, Bingham was introduced to the world of film, and was the first black man to work on a Hollywood Camera Guild crew. Since then, Bingham has appeared in over 30 individual movie credits, mostly in the Camera and Electrical Department, including 2 credits as a producer, and one credit as an actor (playing himself in Ali documentary The Greatest) .

Described as the "Forrest Gump of photojournalism" because of his frequent "popping up" at the right moments in history, Bingham has photographed the likes of Little Richard, Nelson Mandela, Bill Cosby, President Gerald Ford, and Malcolm X. Along with photographing a multitude of public figures, Bingham has traveled across the globe on diplomatic, and humanitarian visits to Bangladesh, Pakistan, and various African countries, among others.

Awards
In 1997 Bingham was awarded the International award by the American Society of Photographers for his "special and significant contributions to the ideals of Professional Photography as an art and science"

A year later, in 1998, Bingham was named Photographer of the Year by the Photo Marketing Distributors Association

In 2006 Bingham was awarded the Gordon Parks Choice of Weapons Award by the Gordon Parks Center for Culture and Diversity for his exemplification of "the spirit, strength, and character of Gordon Parks... because his choice of weapon to fight poverty, racism, and violence was his camera".

Books & Exhibitions
Bingham was selected as a photographer for the 1990 project Songs of My People

Howard Bingham authored Muhammad Ali: A Thirty Year Journey, released in 1993

Howard L. Bingham's Black Panthers 1968 was published in 2001

In 2012, Bingham released his book Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight Cassius Clay vs. the United States of America