"What Struck Me Was His Shyness"

Photographer John Wright talkd about a photo shoot with Michael Jackson that took place a few years ago. Guinness World Records had hired Wright to photograph Michael Jackson at the company's central London (UK) office, where the star was accepting an award for his history-making album sales.

When Michael arrived, he was joined by "a fairly large entourage" including bodyguards, management, and a few lucky fans but no makeup artist or stylist. Wright got a three-minute window to shoot him.

"What struck me was his shyness. He carried himself really quite humbly, I thought.

I've shot a lot of celebrities, and was pleasantly taken with the fact that Michael Jackson went out of his way to introduce himself and shake hands with everybody on my crew, which was about four people on the day - even crossing the room to shake hands with one of my assistants, which was unnecessary, but he obviously felt compelled to out of a sense of grace and politeness.

I want to make it clear: He was attentive, he was focused, he was having fun. That wasn't an ill man who was in the room with me."

After photographing Jackson for about 90 seconds in total, Wright had three usable head shots, one of which he eventually sold to Q magazine earlier this year when the magazine put together its August 2009 cover story on the King of Pop's London comeback concerts.

Meanwhile, he's been approached by a number of outlets looking to print the other two photos. While he provided one to a German tribute publication, he's proceeding with caution.

"It really depends on the context of what they're doing. It will always be the picture that it is, and it's looking like it could be the last official portrait that was shot of him. I've got no need to exploit the situation."

Source: MJFC / Entertainment Weekly