His photographer talks about Elvis Presley
When Alfred Wertheimer took the first steps to become a photographer which will become his career after taking the photos of Elvis Presley, he was only 26 years old.
When the job was offered to now 83-years-old Alfred Wertheimer, he asked, “Elvis? Who is he?”. But just in 2 weeks and taking 2500 photos of the musicians, this was about to change and Elvis Presley was about to be the king of rock and Wertheimer was about to have his photography career. This is a huge success for a Jewish boy from Brooklyn whose family escaped from Nazi Germany in 1935.
Wertheimer talks about those days like, “I use my imagination to create a visual story and documented it. Elvis and the people around him knew I took their photos but they had no idea where and when I did that.”
Photos were taken just before the “Hound Dog” album was released and Elvis Presley turned into a megastar, his innocent face is seen in the photo. But he got famous around the world, he had a sexy look from all aspects. This innocent photo is now in ‘Elvis and the Birth of Rock and Roll’ book published by TASCHEN. Almost half of these photos were never published. An Elvis combing his hair, reading fan letters, playing the piano in the studio… Wertheimer says, “I tried to reflect his character and show the real Elvis.”
Elvis got along with Wertheimer because Wertheimer approached photography as a documentarist. Wertheimer states: “Reflecting the truth was important for me and my prices were not high.”
Wertheimer remembers his first impression when he saw Elvis Presley for the first time. “They took me into a small room at the back of the CBS Studios in Manhattan. There was a middle-aged man who was Presley’s manager tom Parker and young Elvis in the room. Elvis put his legs on the table and his socks were visible. Without looking at me, Elvis said, “of course, why not?” He was a silent and introverted character. If you didn’t ask him, he would never tell anything.”
Alfred Wertheimer’s closeness to Elvis was his success. Wertheimer said, “It was a huge chance for Presley to let us get closer to him. Because I was able to reflect him with sincerity. He never cared about us getting too close to him” and did most of the work secretly. For example, he watched Elvis kissing a girl on the stairs and took his photo. “I first thought that he might want to be left alone and dismiss me. But I must not miss this moment. I got closer. I climbed up the railing and took the photo”. This is how he captured the famous photo.
Alfred Wertheimer’s favorite photos are Elvis’ train journey photos. “I captured a sleepy Presley with his right eye open and left eye closed. He had this “I am watching you” expression.”
Wertheimer took photos of various celebrities including Liz Taylor, Nina Simone and Leonard Bernstein in his long career. When Elvis Presley died in 1977, there was a great interest in these photos and the photos became valuable. And this interest continues.