Elvis & Presley

In 1999, two European photographers - Belgian Stephan Vanfleteren and Swiss Robert Huber - set out on a journey across America with a wild idea: to travel through the myth of Elvis Presley himself. Dressed head to toe in glittering jumpsuits, aviator sunglasses, and towering wigs, they became Elvis and Presley - two alter egos chasing the ghost of the King through eleven U.S. states. The result was a series of photographs as surreal as they are poetic, later collected in their joint book Elvis & Presley (Hannibal, 2016).

The project began as a tongue-in-cheek road trip but quickly evolved into something deeper - a meditation on identity, fame, and the everyday absurdities of myth. Vanfleteren shot in black and white, his signature moody tones evoking timeless Americana; Huber worked in color, capturing the vivid, sometimes garish reality of roadside America. Together, their lenses offered two perspectives on one story: the myth of Elvis confronting the reality of the modern United States.

Through their camera viewfinders, diners, motels, highways, and strangers became stages for performance. Elvis and Presley wandered through Times Square, posed in front of run-down motels, and stood against the vast silence of Death Valley. Everywhere they went, they encountered puzzled stares, laughter, curiosity. “It wasn’t about impersonation,” Vanfleteren later explained. “It was about what happens when myth walks through ordinary life.”

Elvis & Presley isn’t a book about Elvis the man - it’s about Elvis the idea. The photographers turned themselves into living symbols to explore how icons survive beyond their time, how America’s cultural landscape still vibrates with its own legends. There’s humor and irony in every frame, but also melancholy: the awareness that the dream, like the King himself, is both eternal and fading.

When the book was finally published years later, critics praised its mix of wit and sincerity. It became a cult favorite among photography lovers for its layered exploration of performance and authenticity. The pairing of color and black-and-white images underscores the dual nature of the project - fantasy and reality, pop and art, Elvis and Presley.

In the end, Elvis & Presley is less about two men in costume than about all of us - the way we wear identities, chase myths, and perform our own versions of the American dream. Somewhere between laughter and longing, Huber and Vanfleteren’s Elvises remind us that the King never really left the building. He just kept walking, down another dusty road, toward another horizon.

https://www.roberthuber.com/

https://www.stephanvanfleteren.com/

Book available;https://hannibalbooks.be/elvis-presley#891