8 Eyes to Shoot Auction

By Donald G Evans

8 Eyes Photography, comprised of the husband-wife tandem of Pat and Ellen Prather, will be on hand to capture all the fun at Hilton/Asmus Contemporary. Ellen and Pat are supremely talented photographers and boundlessly kind people. They’ve shot our first two induction ceremonies (and will do so at the third), our first Fuller Award and Carl A. Kroc Award luncheon, as well as other special events at the Cliff Dwellers Club and Sanfilippo Estate. I see them here and there clicking away in support of one good cultural cause or another.

One of my favorite things to do after an event finishes is scroll through the index of 8 Eyes pictures. There, always, are the posed shots you want and need, but there, too, are surprising candid and still shots that capture the essence of the event.

I love the photos 8 Eyes took of Gene Wolfe riding the carousel, and the Robin Fisher Dancers performing their routine, and the Young Chicago Authors enacting a scene, and Marc Smith scrunching his face during a Carl Sandburg poetry recitation.

I could go on and on.

Ellen and Pat have the eyes of artists and the acumen of business people, and in the end the combination leads them to places both imagined and not.

We’re lucky to have them at Saturday night’s event.

Donald G. Evans is the founder and executive director of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. He is the author of the novel Good Money After Bad and editor of the anthology Cubbie Blues: 100 Years of Waiting Till Next Year. His short story collection An Off-White Christmas will be published by Simon & Schuster later this year. He is the current Senior Artist-in-Residence at Chicago's Cliff Dwellers Club and the Chicago editor of the upstart journal Great Lakes Cultural Review. He serves on the committee that selects the annual Harold Washington Literary Award recipient, as well as the Chicago Literary Advisory Council of the American Writers Museum.