Graceland: Food Photography Inspired by Elvis and Priscilla’s Fantasy Wedding Buffet

Last Updated on 03/14/2019 by Mark Beckenbach

All images by Louise Hagger, Emily Kidd, and Alexander Breeze. Used with permission.

Making food eye-catching and mouth-watering is the bottom line of food photography. But sometimes, photographers and their collaborators get the idea to make things bigger and push the boundaries further. This is definitely what we see from Graceland, a series of food snaps that celebrate the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley, and his beau Priscilla. The brainchild of food and still life photographer Louise Hagger, creative food stylist Emily Kydd, and creative director and prop stylist Alexander Breeze, Graceland recreates the couple’s wedding buffet and re-imagines it set in the titular Memphis estate to reflect the King’s “gluttonous approach to life and fulfillment in love”.

The series and its creators remind us of the Rock and Roll icon’s obsession with fat-filled foods, with a diet of 10,000 – 12,000 calories per day that eventually ballooned him to 159 kilograms at the time of his sudden passing in his Graceland estate. Among the artists’ inspiration is the world-famous “Elvis” sandwich; an indulgent, calorie-heavy fried peanut butter, banana, and bacon sandwich.

“The images represent the highly documented fatty diet of this American King, with an array of baby pink hued foods styled with authentically retro props, and embellished with paper umbrellas – iconic for every dining table of this era – all set in an imagined replication of the home environment of these lovers,” said the creators in their statement.

“We’ve curated ‘Graceland’ to reflect the nostalgic aesthetic of sixties gastronomy” claims Louise, “with the US classic Key Lime Pie and giant wedding cake, these shots exude the kitsch cliché sweetheart story of Elvis and Priscilla.”

Graceland certainly ticks everything on a food photography project’s checklist; inviting, artsy, and beautifully styled. Whether or not it’s a faithful re-imagining of the couple’s wedding buffet or even their extensive dining experiences, one thing is for sure: it definitely tells of a feast fit for the King.