Unholyalliance said:

ali23 said:

Please help us!

http://www.mj-777.com/?p=5896

They really should have uncovered that when he was acquitted, but better late than never. I hope the superintendents agree to take it down.

I love this one.

[Edited 10/15/10 10:07am]

BRILLIANT!!!

Timmy84 said:

L4OATheOriginal said:

and i still think sly was high on the grammy's with that mohawk

Duh.

u nut lol

L4OATheOriginal said:

Timmy84 said:

Duh.

u nut lol

Thanks. lol

Timmy84 said:

Unholyalliance said:

They really should have uncovered that when he was acquitted, but better late than never. I hope the superintendents agree to take it down.

I love this one.

[Edited 10/15/10 10:07am]

BRILLIANT!!!

Me likes it too!

Vanilli said:

dag said:

Is it real or not? Some say it´s photoshopped.

[Edited 10/15/10 6:12am]

[Edited 10/15/10 6:18am]

dag - where did you find this? It looks incredible.

Someone posted it on the KOP board.

Timmy84 said:

Unholyalliance said:

They really should have uncovered that when he was acquitted, but better late than never. I hope the superintendents agree to take it down.

I love this one.

[Edited 10/15/10 10:07am]

BRILLIANT!!!

I didn't like it too plastic and unnatural.

seeingvoices12 said:

Timmy84 said:

BRILLIANT!!!

I didn't like it too plastic and unnatural.

I love his eyes in this. Despite its plasticity and unnaturality you see his soul.

He looks very sad in these pictures.

Do you suppose he was unhappy with the results?

.

[Edited 10/15/10 11:56am]

Sag, I don´t know. Anyways, here´s an article.

Never-Before-Seen Michael Jackson Photos Come to Light at Auction

Nicolai Hartvig, ARTINFO France Nicolai Hartvig, Artinfo France


PARIS – Michael Jackson moonwalked to Mozart’s "Requiem" as Arno Bani's shutter clicked. Sometimes pensive, sometimes smiling serenely, the King of Pop opened himself to the young French photographer. Bani even took the liberty of having Jackson’s hair cut short because he "liked him that way." Afterward, Jackson let it grow back out. "He really didn’t like his own face," Bani said. "With longer hair, he could hide it."

Eleven years since the intimate session, one of the few artistic collaborations ever initiated by the singer, four striking series of photographs will go on the auction block in Paris on December 13.

"We were like two boys playing on the floor, putting puzzles together," said Bani, greeting ARTINFO France in his northern Paris apartment for a talk about the never-before-seen photographs that are today unveiled to the world. "I was a kid then, but he was ten times the kid I was. I would bring glitter pots and he would stick his finger in them and watch how it sparkled. We would spread it everywhere. The fashion design folders were like toy catalogs to him." He added, "Michael Jackson wasn't just asking me to take pictures. He wanted me to build him a look for the next ten years."

Surrounding the pair was Jackson’s entourage of artistic directors, clutching notepads, scribbling down whether the King of Pop liked the blue glitter better than the red. "It was the world in which he lived," Bani said, "like seeing him in his little golden prison, discovering. He was extremely curious and cultured, but always humble, respectful, and kind. He would jump on the couch and clap when he fell in love with a new detail. He would give me hugs and bow with his hands together, Japanese-style. I had to ask him to stop thanking me, but I was really very touched."

The project came about by chance. Michael Jackson had spotted a fashion shot by Bani on the cover of the Sunday Times style section and immediately decided that he wanted to work with the young photographer. At first, Bani thought someone was prank calling him, before his lawyer friend confirmed that the King of Pop was inviting him for an audience. Bani would make six return trips to New York ahead of the three-day shoot.

One image, "The Golden Cape," was originally intended for the cover of Michael Jackson’s final studio album "Invincible," but it was nixed by Jackson’s label Epic Records. "It was a great disappointment," said Bani, sitting between his eight-month-old son and a stack of Michael Jackson prints, discarded among the more than 8000 he has signed and dated during the past three months for the collector’s box that will accompany the sale.

The auction by Pierre Bergé & Associés is itself unique. Four large, single-print photographs headline the sale, flanked by 31 contact sheets showing a non-airbrushed Jackson, many with the singer’s handwritten notes. Last, there are 55 prints from the contact sheets. All will be sold without reserve or estimate, starting at €1,000 ($1,410) for the prints and €500 ($705) for the smaller lots. There will be no reprints, no mass-market posters, and no T-shirts, said Frédéric Chambre, vice president and associate at Pierre Bergé & Associés, in his office across from the historic Drouot auction rooms.

The collector’s box, priced at €1,000 ($1,410), will hold a large format catalog and four silver prints of the Bani photographs. A second catalog will be in bookstores for €45 ($63) and, in a rare auction-house nod to the masses, a €19.90 ($28) edition will be sold in supermarkets. Co-editors around the world signed up for translated versions without seeing any of the Bani pictures.

"The project is more rock and roll, or pop, than Pierre Bergé & Associés is used to," Bani said. "We wanted to create something that was edgy and arty but open to a large audience."

Bani was bound by contract to keep the photographs out of public view for 10 years and kept them locked in a safe in southern France. The blockade expired three weeks after Michael Jackson’s death on June 25, 2009. "We decided to take our time," the photographer said. "We didn’t want to drown in everything that was being unearthed for sale following his death, to surf that somewhat morbid wave."

Bani and Jackson had developed an intimate but simple collaboration, where the photographer was given carte blanche to assemble his team and create his vision of the singer. Bani brought along star hairstylist Seb Bascle, makeup innovator Topolino, and fashion trendsetters Frédérique Lorca and Maïda. It was summertime in Paris and everyone was in T-shirts and Bermuda shorts.

Topolino became the eccentric troublemaker of the bunch, Bani said. In an almost "diplomatic incident," the makeup artist and his assistants spread vaseline around Jackson’s eye and softly blew the shiny blue glitter onto the singer’s face. "Jackson’s staff was shocked," Bani remembered. "'You can’t blow on Michael Jackson’s face,' they protested."

Topolino liked to have background music, so he brought a five-dollar radio with horrid sound and set it to French oldies and pop stations. "Michael Jackson was curious and wanted to know what this French music was. He was listening to (Joe Dassin's) 'Aux Champs Elysées' and old Georges Brassens tunes," Bani recalled.

The makeup artist also snuck into Jackson’s purpose-built shower that was always carefully sanitized and supplied with ultra-clean, plastic-wrapped towels. In the end, Jackson "didn’t care about any of that," Bani remembered. There were no eccentric celebrity demands, no complaints about the food or the room temperature.

The singer entered a zen-like, meditative state as he sat through the hours-long makeup sessions — first to rebuild and mask, then to create the desired look. "He had this ability to turn himself off and then back on in two seconds. I had asked him to dance for some of the pictures and I thought he was dozing off. He looked tired. Then he just kick-started and did it."

Any tension surrounding the shoot came from an uneasy relationship with Jackson’s label and management. "Michael Jackson had capriciously decided that he wanted this twenty-three-year-old kid from nowhere, some young fashion photographer from Paris. There wasn’t much trust, certainly not on a very expensive project like this one," Bani remembered.

"I had no spending limits," the photographer said. "If the inseam of Michael Jackson’s pants cost 10,000 euros, no problem. At one point, the Sony people told me they had never spent that much on a suit and even brought Michael’s stage costumes out of storage to show me what they usually did. There was an awful jacket with round mirror sequins that were just glued on. It only worked at 100 meters distance with tons of spotlights pointed at it.”

For "The Blue Eye," Jackson wore an embroidered Yves Saint Laurent suit, an oddly coincidental link today to Pierre Bergé, the late fashion designer’s life partner and guardian of his legacy. "He wanted to dream, to feel the elegance of a 'French touch'," Bani said of Jackson’s wardrobe selections. "When I brought him François Lesage embroideries he touched them and was fascinated. He had never seen such delicate, handcrafted work."

The project did hit a few stumbling blocks. Once there was no news from Jackson for two weeks and Bani wasn't sure if he still had the gig. The singer would sometimes be three or four hours late because he had to circle the block "15 times" to get past the fans. The planned location changed from Paris to New York, Germany, and Disneyland Paris, before the French capital was finally selected. Jackson then missed the first day of the shoot.

The Arno Bani prints will go on public display two days before the December sale and Frédéric Chambre said he couldn’t quite predict how popular the event will be. "We would of course be happy if the room was full and there were 2,000 people waiting in the street," he said. "Michael Jackson is a popular item and auctions are not democratic enough for my taste. We have to give people access to this sale and the memories it revives."

See and reserve the limited edition collector’s box here.

http://www.auctioncatalog...m/home.php

sag10 said:

He looks very sad in these pictures.

Do you suppose he was unhappy with the results?

.

[Edited 10/15/10 11:56am]

These photos were taken right after Hoefflin ( ), Klein, or whoever, severely damaged Michael's face by horribly altering his nose and lips/smile. Therefore I think the sadness in his eyes was because of that, especially after reading what Bani said about Mike not wanting to wear his hair short/pulled back anymore.

silverchild said:

From the great Dancing Machine LP from '74....

One of my favorite songs! He also performed it on Soul Train

L4OATheOriginal said:

Timmy84 said:

Dude, Sly was high as a kite when MJ offered to give him his music back and he refused (Sly). Sly later regretted that decision. Little Richard got his music back thanks to Michael and his mother.

and i still think sly was high on the grammy's with that mohawk

Lawd I remember that then he just up and walked out

Unholyalliance said:

bboy87 said:

L4OATheOriginal said:

and i still think sly was high on the grammy's with that mohawk

Lawd I remember that then he just up and walked out

He went out like Randy Watson.

I really like the picture with turtleneck and the colored sequins. I don't agree with everything Karen says but in June, the interviewer on 20/20 was asking her about Michael's appearance and if he was straight or gay or whatever, and Karen after saying he was straight said "He didn't feel the need to stay in the boundaries of male or female, he wanted a blend of both" when it came to his face and clothes

He was constantly pushing boundaries. He didn't like being boxed in or limited. I believe it's the same way with Prince and Bowie

bboy87 said:

I really like the picture with turtleneck and the colored sequins. I don't agree with everything Karen says but in June, the interviewer on 20/20 was asking her about Michael's appearance and if he was straight or gay or whatever, and Karen after saying he was straight said "He didn't feel the need to stay in the boundaries of male or female, he wanted a blend of both" when it came to his face and clothes

He was constantly pushing boundaries. He didn't like being boxed in or limited. I believe it's the same way with Prince and Bowie

bboy87 said:

I really like the picture with turtleneck and the colored sequins. I don't agree with everything Karen says but in June, the interviewer on 20/20 was asking her about Michael's appearance and if he was straight or gay or whatever, and Karen after saying he was straight said "He didn't feel the need to stay in the boundaries of male or female, he wanted a blend of both" when it came to his face and clothes

He was constantly pushing boundaries. He didn't like being boxed in or limited. I believe it's the same way with Prince and Bowie

I don't think it's a question of gay or straight or effeminate or masculine. It's just taste or preference. Why should that be the sole indicator of one's sexuality? It's also in actions too.

Bowie on the other hand....anyone think those rumours about him sleeping with Mick Jagger are true?

SherryJackson said:

bboy87 said:

I really like the picture with turtleneck and the colored sequins. I don't agree with everything Karen says but in June, the interviewer on 20/20 was asking her about Michael's appearance and if he was straight or gay or whatever, and Karen after saying he was straight said "He didn't feel the need to stay in the boundaries of male or female, he wanted a blend of both" when it came to his face and clothes

He was constantly pushing boundaries. He didn't like being boxed in or limited. I believe it's the same way with Prince and Bowie

I don't think it's a question of gay or straight or effeminate or masculine. It's just taste or preference. Why should that be the sole indicator of one's sexuality? It's also in actions too.

Bowie on the other hand....anyone think those rumours about him sleeping with Mick Jagger are true?

I thought it was confirmed lol

David is bisexual despite his early denials to American media outlets. I think he later admitted he was and said that he felt America was too puritanical.

Apparently, the one on the table is a fake figure?

MyLuv229 said:

Apparently, the one on the table is a fake figure?

Yeah.

Timmy84 said:

MyLuv229 said:

Apparently, the one on the table is a fake figure?

Yeah.

It looks so real! I wonder if they still have that figure around. The Bad-era Michael is hottest out of all of Michael's eras!

Mary Vogt, costume designer of Men In Black II, talks about her experience working with the King of Pop. He had a cameo appearance in the film, and this is Mary’s story:

http://frocktalk.com/?p=961

KB: Did you guys know, when you started the movie, that he was going to be in the movie?

MV: No, Not at all. I think it was his idea actually; I don’t know for sure. You’d have to ask Barry Sonnenfeld, but I’m pretty sure that he had asked to be in it because he was a fan of the first movie, and this was the sequel. It was Sony Pictures, and he had his music deal at Sony, so he has a lot of Sony contacts and when they contacted Barry, he was like “Oh yeah! That would be great!” They were all excited that he wanted to be involved in this movie.

KB: When they told you he was going to be in it, what was your reaction?

MV: I just thought it was great; I was sorry that it was just a cameo! I was hoping that he would have, like, a part! But it was just strictly a one-day cameo. But I was so excited about it.

KB: When you got the word, did you call him for his sizes? How did you get his sizes so you could create the garment?

MV: Well, you know, I am sure you’ve dealt with actors who are super, super busy and I knew there was no way I was ever going to get a fitting with him. So, we contacted his agent, and of course they give you these sizes that are not really sizes, they’re more like clues instead of sizes… When you know what people’s measurements should be, and you get this stuff like, a human being could never possibly have these measurements… So I knew that those were completely wrong. I knew that he had a designer that he’d been working with for like thirty years (Michael Bush), and I thought, “Well, if anyone’s gonna know, he’s gonna know…” At the time I think he was out of the country; I had trouble getting in touch with him. I knew that Rick Baker had body casts of him; it turned out to be a little bit of a hunt to find his sizes. Another designer had just done something with him where he made suits, and I found out where those suits were made. And, yeah. So it was a little bit of detective work! Michael’s designer contacted me, a couple weeks later, and then we pieced together sizes. I was able to hire a body double that we did the fittings on.

KB: So tell me about when you met him – was it the day he was supposed to work? And then you had to fit him that day?

MV: Yeah, exactly, it was like the day he was going to work, and I had the suit and the shirt and the shoes and the whole thing. And it was on the Sony lot, and he had a trailer, just like a normal Starwaggon, nothing special. He had one security guard, and he knew I was coming – it was just me, because we didn’t want to crowd his trailer with a whole lot of people – so it was just me, and his outfit, and the security guard let me in. And like, he was there, in like sweatpants and a robe, and you know how they have these like little small kitchens in those motor homes? He was at the table, making sandwiches! And there were these two kids, like little kids, his kids, and they were coloring. It was like the most perfectly normal family scene you could ever imagine. I never thought that his kids would be there, for one thing, because he was working. And I never expected for him to be making them sandwiches! I was expecting something, I guess, a little more elaborate! Or a little more bizarre…? (I loved reading this part!)

KB: (laughs)

MV: And he was just like, “Oh Hi! – Oh, you have my suit?” And he was like, “Oh, I’ll put it on!”, and so he went to the back of the trailer and put it on. I had pre-tied the tie, you know, velcroed it in the back so that he, well he’s probably used to stage clothes that are already pre-rigged, and so… everything was fine. He said that he wanted to keep the clothes, and I just said, “Fine!” I’m sure everyone expected that. And then he went out and shot the scene, and it was just him shooting against a green screen. I think it took a couple of hours. And then, that was the end of it!

It was really interesting because he was really quiet, more concerned with the kids’ lunch than anything else. A phone call came in about music, a business call, and he suddenly, completely changed. He was then a very efficient person, you know, efficient voice and it was just all business, like a Wall Street stock trader or something. You could really see how he was, a businessman. It was very interesting.

KB: Yeah. I mean, when you think about the superstars you’ve worked with in your lifetime, he’s gotta be up there in the top!

MV: Oh, definitely.

KB: We’re very privileged.

MV: Yes, I had worked with Sting, this was way in the beginning, like a million years ago, I was an assistant to Bob Ringwood on Dune. I didn’t even know who Sting was, and I was filling out his stuff, and I said, “Sting, what’s your last name?”

KB: (laughs)

MV: I needed it for the customs! He goes, “What?!” And then he gave me like his real name, Gordon Sumner. But I have found that working with sort-of the big stars, it’s always a maze to get to them, you have to go through all of these people, and then when you finally get to them, they’re usually, like, very nice. But accommodating them is tough, because you really feel like time is ticking, is at a premium. You have to be very efficient.

KB: This has been great Mary. But unfortunately here at my house, somebody has decided to turn on their leaf-blower so I am having some trouble recording this conversation!!

MV: (muffled laughing) That’s basically the story, anyway! The clothes (suits) were very simple, they were like tailored, and we made a million of them. But the fact that he was so nice, and so, you know, unaffected, which is interesting… he was just a very nice person! You know, making sandwiches for his kids.

KB: Well it’s a great story. Thank you so much for sharing this, Mary!!

Thank you, Mary, for your time and for sharing your story about costume icon Michael Jackson. I look forward to talking with you in the future about more of your fabulous work!

Respect and recognize! MJ fans are really incredible. Too bad Michael had to die before this could happen

[Edited 10/15/10 22:31pm]

[Edited 10/15/10 21:33pm]

This picture could've definitely worked as the cover for Vision

[img:$uid]http://i065.radikal.ru/1010/0e/a05e286b061d.jpg[/img:$uid]

and I'm trying to figure out how this would've worked for the cover for Invincible

[img:$uid]http://i53.tinypic.com/rjjz81.jpg[/img:$uid]

FINALLY! they uncover his name. Good job to the fans who took action.

[img:$uid]http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/581/71589448775419115339260.jpg[/img:$uid]

[Edited 10/15/10 22:30pm]

Timmy84 said:

Unholyalliance said:

They really should have uncovered that when he was acquitted, but better late than never. I hope the superintendents agree to take it down.

I love this one.

[Edited 10/15/10 10:07am]

BRILLIANT!!!

I know i love that one, it would make an awsome album cover *sigh*