Elvis Costello Jumping 1986
If there is one thing Elvis Costello has in spades it's enthusiasm. No matter what it is he's doing he always puts his heart and soul into it.
Around the time of King of America we did a studio session together, all went pretty normally, we shot close portraits, half lengths, photos with a guitar, all the usual stuff.
I told him we had enough good photos and could call it a day, but he replied that he had one more thing he wanted to try. He disappeared into the dressing room and came out a few minutes later in this bright yellow coat.
On many people it would look ridiculous, but Elvis has this ability to carry clothes well and it actually suited him. It did not seem to me that you could do anything other than full length shots in this outfit, he even had these black watch plaid shoes to top off the outfit.
So I suggested he just jump up in the air a few times. He happily did this, doing his best Pete Townshend impersonations, but for the last couple of frames he flung his arms out wide creating the photo you see here.
It appeared first in the Face, we always offered Nick Logan out best work and he ran this photo across a spread. To me it sums up EC perfectly.