The black-and-white photos of Michael Jackson are remarkable not only as previously unreleased images of one the last half-century’s most photographed men. They also reveal much about the pop superstar’s abiding impulses: his impish sense of humor, his fealty to yesteryear’s master showmen and his concern about his own place in the pop culture firmament.
Sporting a threadbare black suit, pancake makeup and a miniature brush mustache, Jackson is a doppelgänger for Charlie Chaplin’s “Little Tramp” character from 1921’s “The Kid.” The photos, taken in 1994 by Steve Whitsitt, were originally intended as a companion piece to the Chaplin-inspired video the director-photographer was shooting for “Smile” — the cover of the silent comedian’s famous song that appears on Jackson’s “HIStory” album. But when the Chaplin estate issued a cease-and-desist order to stifle “Smile’s” release as a video and single, Whitsitt abandoned the photos to his archives.
Source: LA Times
