Alfred Wertheimer photo and drawing collection

Alfred Wertheimer (1929-2014) was a photographer, cinematographer and film editor. Born in Germany, Wertheimer and his family moved to New York in 1936 to escape Nazi persecution. After attending Haaren High School in Manhattan, Wertheimer graduated from The Cooper Union art program in 1951. He enlisted after graduation and served as an Army photographer until returning to New York in 1954. As a photojournalist he worked for fashion photographer Tom Palumbo and RCA Victor Records, who commissioned him to shoot some of the earliest photos of Elvis Presley. As cinematographer he worked on The Making of the President (1963), Woodstock (1970), and many other full-length and short films.

Wertheimer's work continues to be shown in solo exhibitions by respected institutions, including the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC; Akron Museum of Art, Ohio; Allentown Art Museum, Pennsylvania; The Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles; Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama; Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Tennessee; Tucson Museum of Art, Arizona; Worcester Ari Museum, Massachusetts. Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolina; Experience Music Project, Seattle; The Grammy Museum, Los Angeles; Australian National Portrait Gallery, Canberra; Folkwang Museum, Germany; Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography, Moscow; and Mondo Galeria, Madrid.