Monday, September 7, 2009

Part 6: Making of the Book

Tuesday morning, July 7. The previous week was hectic and exciting -- photo editors were calling nonstop with MJ photo requests. I hadn't published any of my MJ photos in the press for almost 20 years, and was determined to only release four or five images to the press in order to keep my book a rarity. Steve, the editor at Chronicle Books I'd been talking with for several weeks, said he had six book offers arrive in his email the morning after MJ's passing. He knew the market would be flooded with books, but after looking at my pictures and reading my story, he said none of them compared to mine. Chronicle Books made me an offer that day and I accepted it soon after. So Tuesday morning, the day of the memorial service, I was combing through the book contract. My assistant Manny was busy scanning images. My photo editor, Jessica Hundley and her assistant photo editor, Taye Hansberry were reviewing images and listening to the memorial streaming over the Internet, trying in vain to fight back tears. The emotion in the room was palpable. Bitter sweet. I was in the next room and occasionally heard their quiet sobbing drift out of the studio. I tried to ignore it. But I couldn't.
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Bio

My photo
Los Angeles, CA, United States
Todd Gray photographed Michael Jackson over a period of 10 years, often as Jackson's chosen photographer. He has shot numerous album covers and directed music videos, and his photo-based artwork is in the permanent collections of museums in the U.S. and abroad. He is currently a professor of art and photography at Cal State University, Long Beach, and lives in Los Angeles.
Photographer Todd Gray worked with Michael Jackson for several years before Jackson requested that he become his personal photographer, a relationship that would encompass the singer's performances with the Jacksons through the release of his smash solo albums Off the Wall and Thriller. 

This collection of unseen, intimate, and joyful pictures of Michael taken over a span of 10 years reveal him at home, with his family and fans, in career-making live performances, and the on the "Beat It" video shoot. 

A young black man not much older than Jackson at the time they met, Gray brings unique insights to his time with the singer, contributing stories and context to the images, presenting a rare, intimate portrait of Jackson at a creative peak as he grew from a brilliantly talented young man into a pop icon.