Withers was on the scene in Memphis, April 4, 1968, just moments after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. He was consulting a younger photographer who had just taken photos of the body. “I could see from his anxiety that he must have had something,” said Withers in “Bluff City”: The Secret Life of Ernest Withers. In those days, taking a shot was not enough. As it turned out, the younger photographer did not know how to develop his photos. Without Withers, who accompanied the frightened photographer to his studio to create the images, we might not have the best photos of King. Preston Lauterbach’s latest work, “Bluff City,” was released in January. He became interested in Withers’ work when he moved to Memphis to learn more about Memphis’ history. They met in 2005, just years after the death of the legendary storyteller. The world was only able to learn about Withers’ second life as an informant at the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2010, three years after his death. Although “Bluff City” is a biography about Withers, it also focuses on 20th-century Memphis and the conflict with the FBI. Lauterbach takes the reader on a tour of the Deep South and the era, but always returns to Withers. Stories range from the Emmett Till murder case to the mysterious origins of Elvis Presley’s music style to the conflict between establishment and progressive wings of civil rights movement. They focus on key moments in Mississippi’s past, like Medgar Evers’s funeral at Jackson or James Meredith enrolling at the University of Mississippi. Withers was there with his camera for every moment. His photographs are used in “Bluff City” to show the country’s transformation. The book zooms in so much on the country’s transformation that Withers is only a part of it at times. These two narratives merge at the end when Lauterbach discusses Withers’ role in King’s murder and the sanitation workers strike. Lauterbach explains that he was not sure how discussing Withers’ FBI support would impact his legacy. He writes that he had wrestled with the implications of writing the book on Withers’ photography and finally decided, “I think it is necessary to embrace him as he is.” Although Withers, the “photographer who may betrayed civil rights movement,” is a fascinating and controversial protagonist, I would love to have seen other sides to him. Was he a father or husband? What was it like to work alongside him? The readers see Withers as a special black photographer in the South in the mid-20th Century who tried to capture truth through his photography, even though his truth was being held hostage by activism and patriotism. Lauterbach writes that one passage in “Bluff City”, where Withers is a young man, stands out. He receives advice from L. Alex Wilson, his mentor. How do I choose the right picture? Wilson replied to Withers, saying that he takes a picture and then asks himself: “Is it true?” Is it painful? It hurts. Update: Preston Lauterbach won’t be attending the book festival.