A little bit of news for anyone following this James King photo search saga...I've reduced the number of possibilities from 13 to 10.
The National Library of the Czech Republic got back to me last week and told me she was not on their two covers.
More importantly, I've also eliminated the only known James King cover that was on my list, Elle China April 1999. I've known about this cover for awhile but the Capital Library of China (it seems to be a public library) didn't respond to my e-mails and I had a feeling this wasn't the issue the photo I'm looking for came from. But, being a known cover, it had to be checked nonetheless, so last night a local in Beijing went to the library for me (I paid him 40 USD).
The neat part of it was I happened to be online when he went there and we did this together in real time. He eventually found the issue (small versions as files are too big to easily attach here)
He then got carried away sending me all sorts of photos and then finally sent me the Table of Contents that I kept asking for (I knew instantly this wasn't the right issue when I saw it)
There was a "Hippie Chic" editorial, which supports my belief the photo is in a similar editorial in one of the remaining 10 issues from 1999:
Mexico 3,7 (I believe these are completely non-English language so unlikely to be here)
Norway 3,4,5,7 (I believe these are completely non-English language so unlikely to be here)
Taiwan 6
Thailand 4,7
Turkey 6 (I believe these are completely non-English language so unlikely to be here)
Keeping the above in mind, I wrote to one of the editors at Elle Norway on October 5, asking if she could have someone check their archives for me, since they had 4 of the 13 remaining issues (at the time). Is that really such a tall order to ask? Apparently so. No response.
None of the national libraries have any of these issues. A university library in Taiwan has Elle Taiwan June 1999 but didn't respond to a couple of my e-mails. For anyone who wants to ever try such a thing at home, the national libraries will almost always try to help you but the opposite is true of university or public libraries.
Meanwhile, I reached out Hearst UK Syndication (as they had the original James King cover that all others were reprinted from in the following months) thinking they could tell me all of the reprints. She referred me to the Syndication Director at Lagardere, because they are the publishers of the original French Elle and they licensed Elle to 44 other countries. She, in turn, tried to help me but just did not have the information I needed. But, I asked her for, and got, the e-mail address of someone at Elle Thailand...(I previously wrote to them via their website and got...wait for it...no response).
And, I've thought for awhile that Elle Thailand April 1999 is where my photo most likely is. I don't remember there being any writing on the page my photo was on (I had the photo for about five years) but the one other photo I remember from the editorial (which I had only briefly) was the last one and I have convinced myself there was some Thai on that page (non-English alphabet characters for sure and from a country that has English as one of its languages, which is why Taiwan is still in the picture).
So, my options are:
1) See if I can hire someone in Taiwan (the library is not in Taipei or I would have probably done this already) to go to the university library for me to check Elle Taiwan June 1999.
2) Approach Elle Thailand (I may contact Lagardere again and see if she can offer me a suggestion on how to approach them) about their two issues.
3) Approach James King (or perhaps reach out first to James King Fans) on Twitter. I would think it somewhat likely that James King has already had some kind of dialogue over the years from James King Fans.
4) There are reprinting firms that will get you physical copies or e-prints, basically acting as go-betweens between you and the publisher. I made a phone call and sent an e-mail that were ignored by the reprinter for Elle US. I may call them back and press the button saying that I already have an account with them as a starting point. Or contact a different reprinter.
Is there a possibility my photo is not in one of the three possible candidates left? Yes, but I would be surprised.
The National Library of the Czech Republic got back to me last week and told me she was not on their two covers.
More importantly, I've also eliminated the only known James King cover that was on my list, Elle China April 1999. I've known about this cover for awhile but the Capital Library of China (it seems to be a public library) didn't respond to my e-mails and I had a feeling this wasn't the issue the photo I'm looking for came from. But, being a known cover, it had to be checked nonetheless, so last night a local in Beijing went to the library for me (I paid him 40 USD).
The neat part of it was I happened to be online when he went there and we did this together in real time. He eventually found the issue (small versions as files are too big to easily attach here)
He then got carried away sending me all sorts of photos and then finally sent me the Table of Contents that I kept asking for (I knew instantly this wasn't the right issue when I saw it)
There was a "Hippie Chic" editorial, which supports my belief the photo is in a similar editorial in one of the remaining 10 issues from 1999:
Mexico 3,7 (I believe these are completely non-English language so unlikely to be here)
Norway 3,4,5,7 (I believe these are completely non-English language so unlikely to be here)
Taiwan 6
Thailand 4,7
Turkey 6 (I believe these are completely non-English language so unlikely to be here)
Keeping the above in mind, I wrote to one of the editors at Elle Norway on October 5, asking if she could have someone check their archives for me, since they had 4 of the 13 remaining issues (at the time). Is that really such a tall order to ask? Apparently so. No response.
None of the national libraries have any of these issues. A university library in Taiwan has Elle Taiwan June 1999 but didn't respond to a couple of my e-mails. For anyone who wants to ever try such a thing at home, the national libraries will almost always try to help you but the opposite is true of university or public libraries.
Meanwhile, I reached out Hearst UK Syndication (as they had the original James King cover that all others were reprinted from in the following months) thinking they could tell me all of the reprints. She referred me to the Syndication Director at Lagardere, because they are the publishers of the original French Elle and they licensed Elle to 44 other countries. She, in turn, tried to help me but just did not have the information I needed. But, I asked her for, and got, the e-mail address of someone at Elle Thailand...(I previously wrote to them via their website and got...wait for it...no response).
And, I've thought for awhile that Elle Thailand April 1999 is where my photo most likely is. I don't remember there being any writing on the page my photo was on (I had the photo for about five years) but the one other photo I remember from the editorial (which I had only briefly) was the last one and I have convinced myself there was some Thai on that page (non-English alphabet characters for sure and from a country that has English as one of its languages, which is why Taiwan is still in the picture).
So, my options are:
1) See if I can hire someone in Taiwan (the library is not in Taipei or I would have probably done this already) to go to the university library for me to check Elle Taiwan June 1999.
2) Approach Elle Thailand (I may contact Lagardere again and see if she can offer me a suggestion on how to approach them) about their two issues.
3) Approach James King (or perhaps reach out first to James King Fans) on Twitter. I would think it somewhat likely that James King has already had some kind of dialogue over the years from James King Fans.
4) There are reprinting firms that will get you physical copies or e-prints, basically acting as go-betweens between you and the publisher. I made a phone call and sent an e-mail that were ignored by the reprinter for Elle US. I may call them back and press the button saying that I already have an account with them as a starting point. Or contact a different reprinter.
Is there a possibility my photo is not in one of the three possible candidates left? Yes, but I would be surprised.
