Memphis: Photo Stops, City to Delta
The best photos on a Memphis-based trip aren’t confined to the city, the Delta towns south of the state line hold their own, and a couple of the strongest Memphis stops call for restraint rather than a camera pointed at everything.
Beale Street
Live-music venues, historic storefronts, and street murals make Beale a straightforward street-photography stop by day, quieter and easier to shoot without crowds before the evening rush.
Sun Studio
The neon “Sun Studio” sign outside 706 Union Ave is one of the most recognizable images in American music history, and the studio’s original recording room, still in use, is worth a photo from inside the tour if you take it.
National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel
The preserved balcony where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, is marked and visible from the courtyard. Treat this as a place for quiet reflection rather than a photo op; many visitors choose not to photograph it at all, and that instinct is the right one. If you do photograph the exterior, do it with the same restraint you’d bring to any memorial site.
Big River Crossing
The pedestrian bridge from downtown Memphis into West Memphis, Arkansas, gives wide river views and a genuinely good sunset shot back toward the Memphis skyline, free and open year-round.
Graceland’s Music Gate
The wrought-iron gate at the entrance to Graceland, with its musical-note motif, is one of the most photographed entrances in Memphis, even for visitors who don’t go inside.
The Peabody Duck March
The ducks’ march across the lobby’s red carpet to the fountain, at 11am and 5pm daily, is a reliable, slightly absurd photo moment, arrive about 30 minutes early for a clear sightline.
The Clarksdale Crossroads
About 75-95 minutes south on Highway 61, the crossing of Highways 61 and 49 in Clarksdale, Mississippi, is the single most iconic image tied to Delta blues mythology, and it’s an easy add to a day trip that already includes the Delta Blues Museum and Ground Zero Blues Club. Shoot it in late afternoon light if the schedule allows, the sign and the open Delta sky behind it photograph better with a low sun than at midday.
Between the city stops and the Crossroads sign south of the state line, a Memphis-based trip covers everything from neon rock ’n’ roll history to open Delta highway in the same week. See the Memphis, Tennessee day trips guide for the rest of what Clarksdale has to offer once you’re there.