In February 1982, photographer Jack Mitchell conducted what is widely regarded as Whitney Houston’s first professional photoshoot. She was 18 and a senior in high school at the time. The session took place in Mitchell’s Manhattan studio and was arranged by someone connected to her mother, gospel singer Cissy Houston. It was originally intended for the entertainment magazine After Dark but the photos were never published then. Mitchell later described it as “a routine thing.” He shot 13 rolls of film on a medium-format camera over roughly two hours.
Whitney arrived straight from high school in the clothes she had worn that day. While waiting (her mother’s manager was running late), she asked if she could do her homework; Mitchell agreed, noting he had never had that happen before or since.
She had no makeup artist, hair stylist, or entourage. Mitchell, more accustomed to “highly glazed” celebrities like Donna Summer, was surprised by the simplicity. He described her as “an innocent, sweet, pleasant schoolgirl with very good manners.” The shoot was sometimes an “uphill situation” because she was not camera-ready or particularly savvy, though she responded well to direction. He did not see obvious stardom written on her face at the time: “The pictures I made of her were not her subsequent polished image. Mine were just simple images.” He believed these were among her first professional photographs, taken while she was still singing in a church choir and occasionally performing with her mother.
The black and white portraits show a fresh-faced, natural-looking young woman in casual or simple attire (including turtlenecks and everyday school clothes), often in straightforward or profile poses against plain studio backgrounds. They contrast sharply with the glamorous, highly styled images of her later career. The negatives remained in Mitchell’s files for about 30 years until he released them following her death in February 2012.
