\u201cElvis who?\u201d was photographer Alfred Wertheimer\u2019s response when, in early 1956, an RCA Victor publicist asked him to photograph an up-and-coming crooner from Memphis. Little did Wertheimer know that this would be the job of his life: just 21 years old, Elvis Presley was\u2014as we now know\u2014about to become a legend.<\/p>\n
Trailing Presley like a shadow, Wertheimer took nearly 3,000 photographs of Presley that year, creating a penetrating portrait of a man poised on the brink of superstardom. Extraordinary in its intimacy and unparalleled in its scope, Wertheimer’s Elvis project immortalized a young man in the very process of making history.<\/p>\n
Now available as a TASCHEN standard edition, Elvis and the Birth of Rock and Roll<\/em> collects Wertheimer\u2019s most remarkable Elvis shots from that magical year, along with a selection of his historic 1958 pictures of the star being shipped off to an army base in Germany. Each chapter is illustrated with a poster by Hatch Show Print, one of the oldest letterpress print shops in America, which created many early Elvis posters in the 1950s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cElvis who?\u201d was photographer Alfred Wertheimer\u2019s response when, in early 1956, an RCA Victor publicist asked him to photograph an up-and-coming crooner from Memphis. Little did Wertheimer know that this would be the job of his life: just 21 years old, Elvis Presley was\u2014as we now know\u2014about to become a legend. Trailing Presley like a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5054,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[4517,4521],"product_tag":[1175,514,1102,1269,1683,1066],"class_list":{"0":"post-5003","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-photography-en","7":"product_cat-silva-rerum-en-en","8":"product_tag-iconic-photographs","9":"product_tag-men-en","10":"product_tag-music-en","11":"product_tag-musicians","12":"product_tag-pop-culture","13":"product_tag-portraits-en","14":"pa_author_att-chris-murray-en","15":"pa_author_att-robert-santelli-en","16":"pa_cover-hardcover","17":"pa_format-38-x-27-cm-en","18":"pa_isbn-9783836559072-en","19":"pa_language-multi","20":"pa_pages-360-en","21":"pa_published-2015-05-25-en","22":"pa_publisher-taschen-en-en","24":"first","25":"outofstock","26":"sold-individually","27":"shipping-taxable","28":"purchasable","29":"product-type-simple"},"yoast_head":"\n