ALLENTOWN MUSEUM PRESENTS ‘MEMPHIS BLUES’ PHOTOGRAPHS

AVV 4-4 #734627

ALLENTOWN, PENN. — The Allentown Museum of Art presents “Memphis Blues: Photographs by Ernest C. Withers” through April 27 in the Payne Hurd Gallery.

Ernest C. Withers, a practicing photographer for over 60 years, lived and worked in Memphis, Tenn. A perhaps unwitting historian, Withers, who died on October 15, 2007, made a living shooting community events and selling photos to news agencies, telling American stories through the lens of the camera.

He captured in black and white the key moments in the Civil Rights movement, the life and death of the Negro Baseball League and the black social life of the city. He also documented the vibrant Beale Street music scene that grew out of the city’s black culture and influenced a generation of white musicians such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis, who helped to bring the Memphis sound to the attention of the nation.

This exhibition features Withers’ photographs from this classic period in American music. The works provide an insider’s view of the clubs on Beale Street at the point when Americans, white and black, were beginning to recognize Memphis as a musical mecca. He photographed hundreds of the great musical performers who performed on Beale Street stages, many of whom he knew well. Withers’ powerful images validate the message he had printed on his business card: “Pictures tell the story.”

The museum is at 31 North 5th Street. For information, www.allentownartmuseum.org or 610-432-4333.