Monday, September 7, 2009

Part 9: Making of the Book

My photo editor, Jessica Hundley, had just finished editing images and text (1000 pages) with Dennis Hopper for Taschen Publishing. She went from Dennis Hopper to Michael Jackson. I told her I wanted the photo selection to appeal to both fans and lovers of photography. I am an artist making a book of my photographs on the man with the highest profile in popular culture. Our edit selections were sometimes testy. Jessica and my assistant photo editor Taye Hansberry, on occasion clashed with some of the images I choose characterizing them as, how should I put this...boring and uninteresting. They'd acknowledge the aesthetic and technical points of the image and counter that it lacked heart or passion. On the flip side, they'd show me some photos that I did not like at all -- too sentimental, technically inferior or just plain cute. Then my wife, also an artist, would jump in the fray and add her favs. Lesson learned: Men ARE from Mars. And women are definitely not.
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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.