The King of Pop (1984)
I'm sitting in a seat at Arrowhead stadium, totally bummed out and frustrated, watching Michael Jackson moonwalk across the stage as thousands of fans go wild. The light show is spectacular and Michael's brothers, on stage with him, are dressed in costumed military uniforms and coordinating their dance steps while playing their instruments. I am envisioning the photographs I should be taking at that moment, but the camera gear that I brought with me to photograph this show is stored in the trunk of my rental car, outside in the parking lot…
That morning I had landed at the Kansas City airport, and met up with writer Mark Bego, who's upcoming book, On The Road with Michael, I was hired to take photos for. KC's Arrowhead Stadium was the first venue on Michael Jackson's Victory Tour that I had been hired to shoot, and I was both nervous and excited about being there. This was a huge job for me, and the pressure to produce photos for the book was enormous.
Arriving at Jackson Press Headquarters later that day we found ourselves part of a large, unruly crowd of journalists and photographers, all of us clamoring for credentials and access. At the media desk, we were given our show passes and then nonchalantly informed that the photo credential request from our books publisher, which had been promised me, had been denied. Yikes!
Michael was the biggest thing in pop music at the time, and his recent album Thriller was a smash hit. Michael Jackson events were popping up everywhere around town, and unable to photograph the concerts, I began looking to shoot any Michael related events that I could find; press conferences, MJ look-a-like contests, dance competitions, fans decked out in Jackson paraphernalia, the hawking of counterfeit merchandise, anything “Michael” which was worthy enough to photograph. I desperately needed to shoot usable images for the book and it didn't take long for the real story of the tour to come into focus for me; corporate greed’s fleecing of Michael’s devoted but unwitting fans. With that realization, I was off and running.
In the end, I returned home excited by what I had photographed, although I was not entirely sure if the publisher would actually use any of my photos in the book. But after publication I realized there was no need for me to worry, as dozens of my photographs ended up being used.
Six months later, after On The Road With Michael went to press, I received a photo credential from the Los Angeles Reader to shoot the final stop on the Jackson’s Victory Tour at Dodger Stadium, finally bestowing upon me official permission to take photographs of Michael Jackson, live and in concert, moonwalking across the stage.
(For image data, click thumbnail and hover cursor over enlarged photographs)
