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About The Book

Collection of never before seen photographs showing a very little known side of Mike Tyson at his prime and peaking the 1980's and 1990's, in and out of the ring, sometimes with epic legends.

It all began with an art school photography assignment: Lori Grinker was shooting a project on young boxers under the guidance of the legendary trainer Cus D'Amato. Her main focus became a nine-year-old boxer Billy Hamm. While photographing him, Cus wandered over and asked why Lori was shooting that kid, when the bigger kid in the corner working a speed bag would one day be the heavyweight champion of the world! The kid was a then 13-year-old Mike Tyson.

Lori's early boxing photographs of Mike Tyson are without peer--little exists from that era and all of Grinker's work is personal with uniquely privileged access in and out of the ring.

Over the next decade Lori would photograph the coterie that surrounded Mike; Cus's funeral, going home to Brownsville, old friends, trips abroad, in hotel suites before and after fights, his hook-up with Robin Givens, their wedding, their divorce, and the training and fights in between until Tyson's first defeat--the Buster Douglas fight in 1991. This is a side of the Mike Tyson story rarely seen or shared.

About The Author

Lori Grinker is an award-winning documentary photographer and author. Internationally published and exhibited, her work has garnered many awards, including a New York Foundation for the Arts Grant, an Ernst Haas Award, a Hasselblad Foundation Grant, and an Open Society Community Engagement Grant. She has published two books: The Invisible Thread: A Portrait of Jewish American Women, and Afterwar: Veterans from a World in Conflict.

She has exhibited in solo and group exhibits most recently at the Museum of the City of New York and the Brooklyn Museum. Her work is held in many private and public collections including the International Center of Photography and the Jewish Museum in New York City; the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem; among others.

She is an Assistant Professor of Journalism & Design at The New School, and teaches part time at New York University’s Arthur L Carter Graduate School of Journalism. Grinker is a senior member of Contact Press Images and is represented by ClampArt Gallery in New York City.

Product Details

  • Publisher: powerHouse Books (October 5, 2022)
  • Length: 160 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781576877760

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Raves and Reviews

"Grinker’s images, many in black and white with an intimate informality, show a different side to the brash public persona of Mike Tyson."

– Hilarie M. Sheets, 1stDibs Introspective Magazine

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High Resolution Images