The photographer who got up close and personal with Elvis

Wertheimer was given the Presley assignment because of his street-style documentary approach. “I like the idea of practising in the real world — and I wasn’t too expensive,” he says.

His first sight of Presley remains sharp. “I was taken to a small room at the back of the CBS Studios in Manhattan. There was a middle-aged man, Colonel Tom Parker — Presley’s manager — and a young man, Elvis, with his feet up on the table with his argyle socks showing. Elvis grunted: “Sure, why not”, at me, but didn’t look up. He seemed a quiet, introverted person. He never explained anything to anyone unless you asked him.”

Wertheimer’s access was unparalleled. “Presley permitted closeness which was a blessing because it allowed me to show texture and intimacy. He was as oblivious to you as if you were 10 feet away,” he says. Yet Wertheimer also had a few tricks. “He didn’t know half the time when I was photographing him because I was stealthy,” he says. He famously captured Presley kissing a girl backstage. “I thought I could be thrown out because he might want privacy but I had to get the story. So I got closer. I climbed on the handrail behind the girl,” he confesses.

The photographer’s favourite shot was taken on a train. “Presley’s half asleep, and he’s got his right eye open and the left eye closed. It’s as if he’s saying ‘I’ve got my eye on you — be careful’. He was always playing pranks,” he says.

Wertheimer went on to capture other celebrities in his career, including Liz Taylor, Nina Simone and Leonard Bernstein. When Presley died in, 1977, interest in his pictures exploded and has not diminished since. “It’s been the longest assignment of my life,” he says.

‘Elvis and the Birth of Rock and Roll’ by Alfred Wertheimer is published by TASCHEN. The Collector’s edition is £450, the art edition £1,000. www.taschen.com