Michael Jackson
NYC, 1994 5
Michael Jackson, NYC, 1994. I got hired to shoot the cover for Michael Jackson’s HIStory album in 1994. It’s Michael Jackson—like the biggest star on the planet. It was before the scandals...just pure global icon. It was a pretty big deal.
He had this very specific vision that he wanted to shoot: a 3D version of himself on the cover. The tech was super low-fi by today’s standards, but back then, it was ambitious. I had to shoot him from every angle—and I mean that literally. A full rig of cameras set up so that when I pushed the shutter they all fired at the same exact moment. It took me days to figure out the lighting, the shutter syncing, the camera angles, the tech...but I pulled it off.
So he walks in the room.
And I mean, I normally don’t get intimidated. But this was Michael Jackson. And man…he was fragile. Not just in reputation—actually fragile. He was very soft-spoken, you know, sweet. All I wanted to do was hug him and say, Michael, it’s gonna be okay.
I took these pictures that weren’t as stylized like the usual images you’d see of him. The pictures felt raw. They were revealing and harsh–like documents. You could see everything—the surgery in his nose sharp as a tack, the makeup on his collar, the cleft in his chin. They showed a side of him no one had really seen before.
They didn’t end up using it the way I shot it. The final result was more like an illustration. I wasn’t surprised–I mean, it wasn’t how he wanted to be seen. But years later, when he passed, every magazine came knocking for unseen photos. They all wanted an exclusive cover.
GQ came to me. At first, I was like, cool! I’m gonna have the cover of GQ with Michael Jackson! But I went to bed thinking about it that night and it really weighed heavy on me. They weren’t how Michael would want to be remembered. So I said no.
They were pissed–but I felt I did the right thing.
But now, with time, there’s a new context. The images feel like a historical document of this very troubled person. So out of an odd shoot with the most famous man on Earth, I ended up with these rough images that now feel museum-worthy, and they took on a whole new meaning.
Each photograph is produced as an archival pigment print on Canson Platine Fibre Rag paper. All prints are hand-signed by the artist and offered as editioned Artist Proofs (A/P).
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