Chuck Berry Portrait
I stumbled upon this incredible portrait today of Chuck Berry, by Jean-Marie Perier. It just blew me away. The portrait was made in Mobile, Alabama in October 1964.
Consider this, which comes from an essay by Ian Penman, writing in Harper's Magazine, on the occasion of the publication of a new biography of Chuck Berry, Chuck Berry: An American Life by RJ Smith:
'Smith opens his story near the end of Berry’s life and finds that cars still have a central place in it. In 2011, Berry gets a phone call from the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which wants to exhibit his signature tan-colored Gibson ES-350T. Berry tells them that, yes, they can have the guitar (named Maybellene, as it happens), but on one condition: they must also take his 1973 red Cadillac Eldorado convertible. As if there were an equivalence between these two objects. Guitar and car joined in rhyme and joined at the hip.'
As if the portrait could be made any more perfect.
I don't know whether the portrait features in the book, but kudos to the photo editor that dug this up, either at Harper's or at the book publisher's.