“Elvis allowed absolute closeness. He allowed you to get within three feet of his face and he acted no differently than if you were twenty feet away… A lot of people feel like I captured more of the essence of Elvis than anyone else. The only thing What I wanted Elvis to do was be himself… Most of the time, Elvis never knew I was taking a picture of him.”
Alfred Wertheimer.
In the photos we can see Elvis in the bathroom of the local Southern Railway train, during the trip from New York to Memphis. July 4, 1956.
Wertheimer has full access to Elvis’s intimacy with his lens, including in the train’s bathroom, where the photographer will capture one of his favorite Elvis images: “No More Paper Towels,” where we see Elvis shaking his hands, after washing them, because the towels are out.
