ELVIS! by Dagmar
published by EVENTactiv in Austria,this bilingual book is written in both English and German.
Presented
on October 24th and 25th, 2002, at ELVIS - THE FESTIVAL in Vienna,
it has since been sold to fans all around the globe.
A page with their comments and reviews will soon be added here!
This is the front and back cover.
On August 16 of 2008,
it was 31 years that "ELVIS HAS LEFT THE BUILDING"... for good...
... and a couple of weeks later a mindboggling 38 years had passed,
since I was allowed along
on Elvis' Comeback Tour, September 10th, 11th and 12th, 1970.
I accompanied him to St. Louis, Detroit and Miami Beach,
taking pictures and writing a three part story for the German magazine BRAVO.
I truly believe that I have caught Elvis on film like nobody else did.
He was slim then, gorgeous, and mesmerizing.
A hard-working performer, who held his audiences in the palm of his hand.
ELVIS!
(click on the image to see MORE of him!)
I'm not going to speculate about what happened, later. Others have done that.
My book is dedicated to the millions of fans,
who have not forgotten ELVIS PRESLEY,
the boy who sang like no-one else
and who grew up to become "The King of Rock'n'Roll".
And to all my friends who have supported the idea of this book
for many years: HERE IT IS!
YES, YOU CAN GET YOUR VERY OWN SIGNED COPY!
write me: dagmarfotos@gmail.com
(sorry, LINK has been deactivated due too excessive spam!!)
The book is a PHOTO MEMOIR,
showing Elvis live on those three days of September 1970,
documenting a very special and totally underreported Supertour.
There are over 130 photographs, most in dramatic black-and-white,
most never before seen...
on 166 pages, which include 16 pages of color pictures.
Some of you may recognize some of the images that have appeared
in the pages of European magazines,vintage and new,
like GOLDEN BOY ELVIS Nr 1/2008 (photo soon!), on some book covers --
like 'A QUIZZICAL LOOK AT THE ROCK ERA' --
and in Joseph Tunzi's Elvis-books --
and even on some bootleg CD covers,
of which I will show you just one,
because I really like the way they used the picture,
even though I DO NOT condone bootlegs!!
But most of the photos in "ELVIS! by Dagmar" had not been seen before, even by seasoned fans.
I'd love to get your comments! Do you have a favorite?
Let me know!
Here's that email address again: dagmarfotos@gmail.com
Unfortunately, some people like my photos too much...
and they just copy them out of the book and use them for their own projects.
You'd think that they would then PAY the photographer, after being made aware of copyrights etc.?
Well, usually that happens, but not always.
Here is a case that is not so simple: I discovered it earlier this year.
A photo of an Elvis book was posted on a website and I immediately recognized the cover.
Got in touch with the publisher, not an unknown. No response for a long time.
After repeated requests, I heard from him and his partner.
They a) pretended they had NO idea it was my photo
and b) insisted it was not my photo.
Come on! It is quite obvious to everybody who has seen it
that they had simply cropped and changed it from my original color photograph
via Adobe Photoshop into a line-art version of the image
- without even TRYING to disguise it a bit!!
Here is page 81 in my book and the photo in question
with the altered picture on the cover of "Celebrate Elvis - Volume 1", English version !!
There's also an Italian version, wich appeared October 1, 2007.
Ridiculous to pretend this isn't the same photo.
What do YOU think?
Impossible story? Well, no, unfortunately true.
As an eternal optimist - and Aquarian - I waited for the check.
The first one never arrived. But the second one did - covering 25% of the amount billed...
OK, let's switch this page back to a positive tone:
I have collected lovely feedback from around the globe,
and photos of Elvis fans holding my book - which will be posted here soon!
Don't give up, come back to check!
HERE'S A START
On Jan 18, 2006, Mark Streeter wrote:
...The book is in my hands as of yesterday afternoon and has hardly left them since.
A gorgeous book filled with gorgeous pictures of a gorgeous man!
And by a gorgeous photographer, if you don't mind my saying.
My only disappointment is that you didn't photograph
the afternoon show in Miami as well as the evening performance.
The afternoon concert is the one I attended.
But, all the pictures are great.
And it is interesting to have 1970 shots of Elvis
with his "other" Gibson SJ-200 guitar.
Usually we see him in '70 with his customized Gibson.
My favorite picture in the book?
That's almost impossible to narrow down, so I'll select three:
1) The color shot of Elvis playing "air-guitar" to James Burton's picking on page 82.
2) Page 101
3) The "doubletruck" spread of Elvis and James Burton on pages 110 and 111.
...
and on Feb 9th he added:
Too bad we didn't meet in Miami. You could have taken my picture!
What a treasure that would be!
But maybe you saw me.
I was the skinny fifteen-year-old with the long auburn hair
and the big, silly grin on my face because I was gonna see Elvis.
As to the Gibsons, the one in your pictures was his "standard."
The one most often seen in 1969-70 was the "custom" job
with the Elvis-designed funky pick guard and his name in
mother of pearl along the fret board with two stars.
A beautiful guitar, actually customized in 1960.
I think the guitar switch makes your pictures even more noteworthy.
Thank you for writing, Mark!
You told me something I didn't know about the guitar!
And Elvis fans will appreciate this info too!
and here are two messages dating back to Nov. 2003:
Hallo Dagmar,
habe Ihr Buch schon erhalten. Und schon begeistert gelesen.
Es ist schön, aus der für Elvis so erfolgreichen Zeit nach seinem Comeback,
eine Dokumentation zu erhalten, welche nur ein paar Tage beschreibt
und dazu die tollen Bilder.
Ich bin leider erst Fan geworden, nachdem Elvis verstorben war
und daher sehr dankbar für solche Publikationen.
Mit freundlichen Grüssen
Sven Schmitt
elvis fan from brooklyn ny wrote:
hi long time elvis fan here from ny
seen him in concert 72 73 75 all in ny
when you saw elvis in sept 1970 he looked great
around that time -love the way he styled his hair
it was long. he had it down more. it looked cool.
talk soon-- will order the book over the holidays for sure
(and he did!)
AND NOW: here's the cover of the German Elvis Club Magazine
Graceland, issue Sept/Oct 2003,
check the book's page 77!!
FLASHBACK:
At EVENTactiv's ELVIS FESTIVAL in Vienna,
NANCY SINATRA came to sing Elvis-songs and some of her own,
and at the press conference she held my book close to her heart,
while putting her famous 'boots made for walking' on the table!
At the After Show Party, JAMES BURTON of the TCB Band,
who had all come to perform at the Festival,
opened the book to the pages showing him with Elvis
back then! ---
