In the shadow of The King

Once a year the Countrylink Elvis train sets off from Central Station to Parkes in central NSW to celebrate THE KING!
It’s his birthday and he would have been 77 this year. The excitement is higher than on a first school trip with the average age of Elvettes and Elvii being 40 plus.
I join the motto “Follow that dream…”and spend 3 days in Parkes, NSW to photograph during the festival.
I meet aboriginal Elvis, who didn’t get a gig on any of the stages for the weekend (HeadOn Portrait prize finalist 2012) I meet Michael, a kid with Down’s syndrome who is traveling with a group from Newcastle and can’t stop dancing. I meet Irish Elvis, Indian Elvis, Miss Pricilla 2011…and I set out to see The Dish-famous from the movie “The Dish”.
Accompanied by endless loops of Elvis songs from the speakers on the main drag past all the buskers on the street I see a dynamic on this weekend that is carried by The King’s spirit and sometimes shadowed by Australian smalltown mentality.
Shot on Canon EOS 5D MKII and Hasselblad 500c film and scanned. Photos, bookdesign, scans by Fiona Wolf.