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| Press Kit Living the Life: The World of Elvis Tribute Artists |
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WBEZ Chicago Public Radio Interview |
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Living the Life Ocotober 15, 2005 (Chicago, IL) – The world of Elvis impersonators and tribute artists is illuminated in all its fantastic and fanatic glory in a new book, Living the Life, by nationally-known artist and photographer Patty Carroll. Published by Verve Editions, the book is available at Barnes & Noble and Books-a-Million stores beginning October 15, 2005. The new book features 74 artists, each with their own story and each with their own take on Elvis. Some are full-time entertainers who appear at clubs and other venues year round. Others are regular guys whose day jobs range from house painter to insurance salesman. One performs with his son, a 7-year old boy who wants to be just like his daddy and asked for an Elvis suit for Christmas. Another, a ventriloquist, performs in Elvis garb himself with an Elvis-costumed dummy on his knee. They’re all part of Living the Life. Throughout her career, Carroll has used aspects of popular culture as subject matter for her photographs. She has documented Elvis impersonators since the early 1990s, photographing them morphed into their full Elvis-costumed personas at clubs, competitions and Elvis conferences. Along the way, she developed a rapport with the artists and a sympathetic understanding of this unique subculture’s obsessive, almost religious, attachment to The King. Living the Life peeks into this world and celebrates the guys who have made Elvis such a huge part of their lives.” Carroll said. “It’s a tribute to their devotion and the joy they bring to the legions of Elvis fans they entertain.” The book has an introduction by Andrei Codrescu, novelist, essayist and poet, on the cult of Elvis. Codrescu’s commentaries are heard on National Public Radio. Patty Carroll includes her own essay, focusing on the transformative experience of Elvis impersonators. Carroll’s Elvis photographs have been exhibited around the world. Many were included in a large exhibition “Elvis and Marilyn: 2X Immortal” which toured 12 cities in the U.S. and Japan over a period of four years. Other exhibitions of her Elvis work have been sponsored by the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, and the Memphis College of Art in Tennessee, among others. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), New York, The Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, as well as in many private collections. About Patty Carroll (www.pattycarroll.com) Patty Carroll has made photography her life’s work since leaving graduate school at the Institute of Design, IIT, in 1972. She has taught photography at the university level since that time, at places such as Penn State University, the University of Michigan, the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology, the Royal College of Art, London, and most recently at The School of the Art Institute and Columbia College, both in Chicago. Her personal work focuses on aspects of popular culture and she has participated in over 200one-person and group exhibitions. Her work on Elvis impersonators was included in a large group exhibition titled “Elvis and Marilyn: 2X Immortal” which toured the U.S. and Japan for four years. Her exhibition of night photographs, “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” was held at the Royal Photographic Society in Bath, England and at numerous gallery spaces, including the Carol Ehlers Gallery in Chicago. Photographs for her book, Spirited Visions, a collaborative effort with 42 Chicago artists where Carroll photographed them as if they were in their own paintings or sculptures, toured Illinois for two years. Her recent series of faux film posters composed a one-person show “Dark and Deadly,” at the Art Institute of Chicago. She has also curated several exhibitions of photography for the Japan Art and Culture Association, the Contemporary Arts Council, Chicago, and the Center for Outsider and Intuitive Art, Chicago, among others. Carroll’s work is included books such as Women Photographers by Connie Sullivan (Abrams) and Changing Chicago (University of Illinois Press). Her work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago. She holds her BFA from the University of Illinois, Champagne-Urbana and her MS in Photography from the Institute of Design, IIT. About Andrei Codrescu (www.codrescu.com) Born in Romania, Andrei Codrescu emigrated to the United States in 1966 and became a U.S. citizen in 1981. He is a published poet, novelist, essayist, screenwriter and weekly columnist for “All Things Considered” on National Public Radio. He has appeared on the Today Show, David Letterman, ABC, NBC, and CBS news among others. In addition, he is editor of Exquisite Corpse, an online literary journal (www.corpse.org) and is currently MacCurdy Distinguished Professor of English at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Codrescu often focuses his intellect on aspects of American popular culture. His work has been called “brilliant, insightful, tough and seductive about American culture” by the New York Times Review of Books. His most recent fiction includes Wakefield (Alqonquin Press) and Casanova in Bohemia, a novel (The Free Press). |
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