Elvis at 21: New York to Memphis
In March 1956, photographer Wertheimer took an assignment from RCA Victor Records to go over to the Dorsey brothers' TV show and start the company's photo file on a singer he had never heard, Elvis Presley. During a few days of the same year in New York; in Richmond, Virginia; on a train; and in Memphis, Wertheimer started a file, all right. Especially since Elvis' death, many of Wertheimer's images have become very famous, but seeing them in the context of scores of their assignment mates confirms that they are only a hair better than the others, if that. Every picture in this 11-by-14-inch behemoth, whether of Elvis performing, rehearsing, recording, dressing, sleeping, eating, relaxing with family, or putting the moves on lovely young women----Wertheimer captured all of this--is a beaut. In the foreword, Elvis biographer Peter Guralnick quotes the photographer as to what shooting Elvis taught him: "When somebody is doing something that is more important . . . than having their photograph taken, you're going to get good pictures."Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved