John Dominis, a Star Photographer for Life Magazine, Dies at 92

John Dominis in Indonesia in 1958.

Credit...Time & Life Pictures, via Getty Images

By Paul Vitello

The New York Times - Dec. 31, 2013

John Dominis, a Life magazine photographer who was known for capturing celebrities, wild animals and presidents at their unguarded best, and who was caught off guard himself while taking his most famous picture — of two American medal winners raising black-gloved fists at the 1968 Olympics — died on Monday (Dec 30) at his home in Manhattan. He was 92.

The cause was a heart ailment, said his daughter, Dori Dominis Beer.

Mr. Dominis was a star among a stable of star photographers at Life, the nation’s most popular picture magazine, from 1950 until it ended weekly issues, in 1972.

Ingratiating, self-effacing and ruggedly handsome, he was often assigned to photograph people who preferred not to be photographed. He spent a month in 1963 with the actor Steve McQueen (nearly feral in his aversion to publicity), who was not yet the superstar he became. He persuaded Frank Sinatra to indulge him for three months in 1965 while he went inside his prickly circle of friends, family, drivers and handlers to photograph his life.

It was not charm, though, but the reflexes of a professional photographer that helped Mr. Dominis produce his most enduring image.

On Oct. 16, 1968, when Tommie Smith and John Carlos ascended the Olympic podium in Mexico City to receive medals for finishing first (Mr. Smith) and third (Mr. Carlos) in the men’s 200-meter dash — along with the Australian sprinter Peter Norman, the silver medalist — Mr. Dominis was one of the few photographers who happened to be in the media pen 20 feet away watching and, he said, “expecting a normal ceremony.”

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A version of this article appears in print on Jan. 1, 2014, Section B, Page 14 of the New York edition with the headline: John Dominis, Photographer, Dies at 92.

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A leopard about to kill a terrified baboon in a photo by John Dominis.

Credit...John Dominis/Time & Life Pictures, via Getty Images