Elvis Tribute Artists Radio
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Living the Life: The World of Elvis Tribute Artists is a culmination of over ten years (off and on) of photographing ETA’s all over the world. It sounds a bit dramatic, or at least obsessive, only because in its own way, it is. Here is the story.
I am a classically trained fine art photographer, which means that at the University of Illinois, while I studied Graphic Design for a BFA we had to take photography classes, and I loved it so much that I went on to get my Masters Degree in Photography at IIT in Chicago. Ever since then, I have been teaching photography at various universities in the USA and abroad. Along the route of observing the world through the camera, my photography began to mingle with my other deep fascination with various forms of popular culture. I mostly photographed places; hot dog stands, sleazy motels, bars, restaurants, anything that had entertainment value as well as rich, bright or gaudy colors. After my lonely period of photographing places with no people, I needed to find a way to photograph people.
I got the idea that while portraits can only really show the exterior of a person, I wanted to expose someone’s the inner life in a picture. To this end, I did a series of portraits of Chicago artists as if they were in their own artwork. The project was an exhaustive, but fun collaborative with the artists, and we made elaborate set ups replicating their art in which to showcase them. Eventually, it became a large exhibition that toured the State of Illinois, with an accompanying book that showed my photographs of the artists paired with their artwork. It was called Spirited Visions published by the University of Illinois Press.
Now we get to Elvis. After the Spirited Visions project, I thought my original idea was not really finished. Artists express their inner lives visually in their paintings, etc., but what about everybody else? We all have inner fantasies or images in our psyches that occasionally surface, consciously or not. I pondered this issue for many weeks, and then the AHA moment came when I listened to a news report about an Elvis Impersonator Convention somewhere. These people lived out their inner lives very visibly on stage, and they all shared the same dream! The best part was that as a kid, I was in love with Elvis, and didn’t realize until then how much I missed him. I also had no idea that this project would be so large, long or so engrossing of my entire psyche either.
So it began. I had no info about the Elvis world, much less the ETA world, but I started in Memphis and kept going. At first, everything was new and easy. The ETA world was extensive, but not quite as organized as now. Doc Franklin had just started his famous competition at Bad Bob Vapors, and I started going every summer until he probably got sick of seeing me, but maybe accepted that fact that I wasn’t going away! I went to a few conventions in Las Vegas, when they were at the Aladdin, and I went to competitions wherever I could find them. At each place, I would set up a temporary photo studio in a back room and grab the guys after they had performed; when they were in their Elvis outfits and mode. Some came to my studio, sometimes I borrowed other photographer’s studios, and sometimes I would just photograph them on stage or in crowds, like in Collingwood.
In the early stages of this, my husband was offered a great job in London as the Director of the Royal College of Art, and they also offered me a teaching position in photography. This seemed problematic for me, since my entire photographic work was based on American Popular Culture, but off we went, and every summer I returned to pursue the elusive image of the ultimate ETA. Because I had a lot of time to miss America and think about the diaspora of American culture, it probably strengthened my interest in Elvis and his world. In the meantime, I had several close calls with agents about a book on the subject. I had an English agent, who kept me enthusiastic because she was sure she could sell the project, but alas never did. I did participate in several large art exhibitions with the theme of Elvis, and had several one-person shows of the photographs. The largest was called, “Elvis and Marilyn: 2 x Immortal.” It opened at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston in 1994 and traveled to various museums in the USA until 1997. I showed a 3-part piece called “A Wall of Elvises.” Each piece was a grid of 12 large photographs of various ETA’s in comparable positions and/or costumes. When the exhibition went to The Cleveland Museum of Art, they also had local ETA’s perform at the opening. Eventually, that exhibition also traveled to Japan, where it went to several venues over 2 years. I helped the organizers negotiate with the Japanese organizers for the transition to go smoothly.
Fast forward to 1998 when I was getting tired, broke and generally discouraged about the prospect of photographing more Elvises. We were back in the States, I was on to other projects, I was starting to learn digital photography, the book was not happening, I had other book offers, and I had to get used to being in America again. Basically, I had given up on Elvis, even though I was still talking to his symbolic plaster statue in my studio every day.
Eventually (about 3 years ago) I met my book packager, publisher, guru and generally fabulous person, Gary Chessman. He was interested in packaging and selling my Hot Dog Stands project as a book. However, like many book projects, they come and go into focus. Publishers are interested, then they aren’t, then they are again. Eventually after a long conversation about hot dogs on the phone, I said something about Elvis. Immediately, he said tell me about this, and five minutes later he said, “I can sell that!” I didn’t exactly believe it then, but I am starting to now, since I now have boxes of books in my studio!
I think doing books must be the hardest, but most fulfilling projects in the world. I have never worked harder, longer, spent so much money, time, energy or psychic space on anything I can think of. It took about 2 years to finally get a commitment to publish, and then produce the book. I had to rephotograph some people, we had to do all the scans to save money on the production, every day I looked at designs from the designer, talked to Gary, managed lists, hoped and prayed it would be fabulous. There are lots of stories, experiences and quirks about the people in the book, but that is another story. The book is meant to showcase the vast number and kind of people who love Elvis, and who have crossed over that imaginary spiritual line and become like him temporarily. I hope you will all enjoy it! You can buy it at Barnes and Noble, Amazon or at my website: http://www.elimpersonators.com Patty Carroll
I am a classically trained fine art photographer, which means that at the University of Illinois, while I studied Graphic Design for a BFA we had to take photography classes, and I loved it so much that I went on to get my Masters Degree in Photography at IIT in Chicago. Ever since then, I have been teaching photography at various universities in the USA and abroad. Along the route of observing the world through the camera, my photography began to mingle with my other deep fascination with various forms of popular culture. I mostly photographed places; hot dog stands, sleazy motels, bars, restaurants, anything that had entertainment value as well as rich, bright or gaudy colors. After my lonely period of photographing places with no people, I needed to find a way to photograph people.
I got the idea that while portraits can only really show the exterior of a person, I wanted to expose someone’s the inner life in a picture. To this end, I did a series of portraits of Chicago artists as if they were in their own artwork. The project was an exhaustive, but fun collaborative with the artists, and we made elaborate set ups replicating their art in which to showcase them. Eventually, it became a large exhibition that toured the State of Illinois, with an accompanying book that showed my photographs of the artists paired with their artwork. It was called Spirited Visions published by the University of Illinois Press.
Now we get to Elvis. After the Spirited Visions project, I thought my original idea was not really finished. Artists express their inner lives visually in their paintings, etc., but what about everybody else? We all have inner fantasies or images in our psyches that occasionally surface, consciously or not. I pondered this issue for many weeks, and then the AHA moment came when I listened to a news report about an Elvis Impersonator Convention somewhere. These people lived out their inner lives very visibly on stage, and they all shared the same dream! The best part was that as a kid, I was in love with Elvis, and didn’t realize until then how much I missed him. I also had no idea that this project would be so large, long or so engrossing of my entire psyche either.
So it began. I had no info about the Elvis world, much less the ETA world, but I started in Memphis and kept going. At first, everything was new and easy. The ETA world was extensive, but not quite as organized as now. Doc Franklin had just started his famous competition at Bad Bob Vapors, and I started going every summer until he probably got sick of seeing me, but maybe accepted that fact that I wasn’t going away! I went to a few conventions in Las Vegas, when they were at the Aladdin, and I went to competitions wherever I could find them. At each place, I would set up a temporary photo studio in a back room and grab the guys after they had performed; when they were in their Elvis outfits and mode. Some came to my studio, sometimes I borrowed other photographer’s studios, and sometimes I would just photograph them on stage or in crowds, like in Collingwood.
In the early stages of this, my husband was offered a great job in London as the Director of the Royal College of Art, and they also offered me a teaching position in photography. This seemed problematic for me, since my entire photographic work was based on American Popular Culture, but off we went, and every summer I returned to pursue the elusive image of the ultimate ETA. Because I had a lot of time to miss America and think about the diaspora of American culture, it probably strengthened my interest in Elvis and his world. In the meantime, I had several close calls with agents about a book on the subject. I had an English agent, who kept me enthusiastic because she was sure she could sell the project, but alas never did. I did participate in several large art exhibitions with the theme of Elvis, and had several one-
Fast forward to 1998 when I was getting tired, broke and generally discouraged about the prospect of photographing more Elvises. We were back in the States, I was on to other projects, I was starting to learn digital photography, the book was not happening, I had other book offers, and I had to get used to being in America again. Basically, I had given up on Elvis, even though I was still talking to his symbolic plaster statue in my studio every day.
Eventually (about 3 years ago) I met my book packager, publisher, guru and generally fabulous person, Gary Chessman. He was interested in packaging and selling my Hot Dog Stands project as a book. However, like many book projects, they come and go into focus. Publishers are interested, then they aren’t, then they are again. Eventually after a long conversation about hot dogs on the phone, I said something about Elvis. Immediately, he said tell me about this, and five minutes later he said, “I can sell that!” I didn’t exactly believe it then, but I am starting to now, since I now have boxes of books in my studio!
I think doing books must be the hardest, but most fulfilling projects in the world. I have never worked harder, longer, spent so much money, time, energy or psychic space on anything I can think of. It took about 2 years to finally get a commitment to publish, and then produce the book. I had to rephotograph some people, we had to do all the scans to save money on the production, every day I looked at designs from the designer, talked to Gary, managed lists, hoped and prayed it would be fabulous. There are lots of stories, experiences and quirks about the people in the book, but that is another story. The book is meant to showcase the vast number and kind of people who love Elvis, and who have crossed over that imaginary spiritual line and become like him temporarily. I hope you will all enjoy it! You can buy it at Barnes and Noble, Amazon or at my website: http://www.elimpersonators.com Patty Carroll
