Jim Britt had just signed as Motown's art director and photographer in 1972 when started shooting photos of Michael Jackson and his brothers. “I had a real nice rapport with Michael from the beginning,” he says. “He was a good kid. So many people have tried to glean from me that maybe he was having an unhappy childhood, and there's no way in the world I ever saw that.”
Here are some amazing vintage pictures of Jackson and his brothers from the lens of Jim Britt in the 1970s.
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Piano boy |
“This is Michael in his family's music room,” says Britt. “It was in one of the sheds around their estate in Los Angeles. There were drums, guitar and keyboards. He wasn't playing any specific song, but he was actually playing the keyboard when I took that. The clothes he's wearing are what he put on. We didn't put him in anything.”
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Lookin' through the window |
“This was at the Jackson's house in Encino, California. They had a gazebo there. I shot a series of photos with the guys behind this screen window. The photos were used on the cover of the 1972 Jackson 5 album Lookin' Through the Windows. Michael picked up the flower on his own. Again, he just seemed like a normal kid. I remember him shooting a lot of basketball with his brothers.”
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The dog Is mine |
“I occasionally used a lens back then that gave photos a real glow-y look. This is just Michael and his dog. It's pretty simply stuff. We didn't have much of a concept. People used to say to me, 'Well, what's your concept behind this?' I'd just crack up. I was just photographing someone to get their glint. Each person has their own glint and that's what I was looking for in Michael.”
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Strike a pose |
“This was taken at a park in Beverly Hills around 1973. Michael was doing a karate move. I was way down the lane with a tripod and a 180mm lens so I could blow the background out. It's all open shading and pretty light. This photograph didn't wind up getting used for anything.”
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Blue sky mine |
“This was taken on the roof of my studio. We had to climb a little ladder to get up there. It was adventurous. I knew what the light was like up there and I wanted this open sky. You can see a tree back there, but it's way out of focus. This was in 1975. We were shooting for his album
Forever, Michael.”