Is there another picture that more epitomizes Memphis music than Whithers 1956 picture of young Elvis Presley and B.B. King? In fact, flipping through Withers book of photography, The Memphis Blues Again, Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs, is like traveling in a time machine to a bygone era in America. He photographed clubs, dance halls, churches, recording studios, and people in a mission to document what he called The Black side of life. His pictures are of musical legends like B.B. King, Rufus Thomas, Howlin Wolf, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Ray Charles, Bobby Blue Bland, Ruth Brown, and countless others. He is best known for the photographic record of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s, which range from the trial of the murders of Emmitt Till to the funeral of Martin Luther King. His lifes work is an invaluable contribution to American cultural history.
