Before beginning our Mississippi River tour, I spent a day in Memphis in order to photography a cultural phenomenon known as Graceland. Built in 1939, this white columned mansion ten miles from downtown Memphis became the home of the singer Elvis Presley in 1957 until his death in 1977. Today it is the prime tourist attraction in Memphis, drawing over a half million visitors a year. I have little interest in either Presley or his music, but I always enjoy photographing quirky, incongruous subject matter. I was sure I would find it at Graceland and I did. For many visitors, the place offers a quasi-religious experience. I followed a long line of Presley Pilgrims as they snaked their way through a self-guided tour along the many corridors of Graceland. The building includes a museum containing hundreds of artifacts, paintings, records, costumes, and awards. Here, a woman pauses before a Presley portrait. Hands clasped, she follows the tour’s progress on headphones. She seems almost at prayer. I isolated her in darkness by spot metering on the bright painting. Her white shoes repeat the brilliant whites in Presley’s costume.

I was drawn to the color of this costume and to the green background in the painting just behind it. I layered the image to make the young singer in the portrait seem to almost be hiding behind the orange sleeve of his costume. The image expresses the vulnerable nature of a poor boy that, for better or worse, used his instincts and talents to forever change the cultural landscape of the United States.

The tour of Graceland ends in “The Meditation Garden,” which was where Elvis went to reflect on any problems or situations that arose during his life. He is buried there, alongside of his parents and grandmother. His fans still leave memorials, even thirty-five years after his death. This vase, along with an American flag, stood next to his grave. The luminous glow of the blue ribbon, as well as the hand-lettered tribute scrawled on a paper heart, symbolize the longing Presley still manages to stir among his fans.

This image is a good example of a photographic advantage granted only to those on an organized tour. We were taken by bus to a local church to hear a stirring half hour concert of gospel music presented specifically to our tour group through the efforts of the travel agency that serviced our visit to this small Arkansas town on the Mississippi River. I could move freely about the church, finding vantage points and moments in time that captured the fervor and energy of the singers. This particular photograph features one of the most powerful voices in this choir. I had to use a slow shutter speed of 1/10th of a second, and a high ISO of 1600 to make this picture. Indeed, there is evidence of camera shake visible in the details, the result of using a hand-held 375mm lens at such a slow shutter speed. The slight blur caused by camera shake creates a positive effect here – it seems to make the image vibrate slightly, offering a concussive illusion of robust sound. The softly focused supporting singers in the background add important context to the image. Gospel music such as this is an important aspect of life along the Mississippi River, an appropriate launch for our eleven-day cruise through the region.

When on tour, I find that I make some of my favorite images during the “free time” that is usually granted at the end of a particular visit. In this case, we were given an hour or so to prowl the streets of Helena, Arkansas. Most of our cruise passengers used the time to visit local museums, and do a bit of souvenir shopping. I used my hour to seek expressive photographs. Many of Helena’s shops were closed or vacant, but its lone music shop was still in business. Musical expression is at the core of this region of Mississippi valley. We would hear a gospel choir in a neighborhood church (see the two previous images), and the town also is widely known for its annual King Biscuit Blues Festival. For me, this long established music shop symbolized what Helena is all about. I talked with the man behind its counter, and he told me that the world seems to have forgotten this place. I asked him if I could photograph him, and caught his melancholy mood in this environmental portrait. He stands surrounded by musical instruments of all kinds, yet his store remains virtually empty of customers most of the time. In a world where most people now can buy anything on-line at a cheaper price, such establishments as this are an endangered species.

Seventeen thousand Civil War Union soldiers and sailors are buried here, of which 13,000 remain unknown. This is the largest National Cemetery in the United States. It occupies ground once held by Major General William T. Sherman’s men at Vicksburg. Not all of the those buried here were killed at Vicksburg. Many are reburials from battlefields elsewhere in Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana. While our tour group visited a nearby museum featuring a Union gunboat, I broke away in order to take advantage of a setting sun casting its light on the carpet of leaves covering the cemetery. Instead of diluting the image by attempting to photograph the massed gravestones, I use only a single gravestone to anchor my image. This stone marks the grave of an Illinois Sergeant. I use it to represent all who rest here. I layer the image by including another stone in the middle ground, representing the unidentified soldiers make up 75 per cent of the burials here. The background of this image adds critical context. We see the masses of headstones in the background, indicating the scope of this cemetery. I bring the top edge of the picture down, abstracting the huge tree dominating this background. This framing calls attention to the tree's multi-branched shadow reaching towards the two lonely graves that float upon the field of fallen leaves.