Michael Jackson - musician: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This is a black and white photograph of Michael Jackson. He is pictured to the left side of the image seated on a stool. He wears a metallic jacket with patches on the proper right shoulder and upper arm as well as on the proper left upper arm. He sits with his legs resting on the rungs of the stool. His hands are posed in front of him, resting on the edge of the stool. He looks directly at the camera. In the background to the right side of the image is Jackson's shadow with the legs of the stool visible. The image is bordered in a narrow black line from the original negative frame. The image is situated on a white background. Below the image in the bottom portion of the sheet is hand-written text in black ink with the title, date, and artist's signature.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1980
• Photograph by: Anthony Barboza, American, born 1944
• Subject of: Michael Jackson, American, 1958 - 2009
• Type: gelatin silver prints
• Type: portraits
• Medium: silver and photographic gelatin on photographic paper
• Dimensions: H x W (sheet): 19 7/8 × 16 in. (50.5 × 40.6 cm)
• Dimensions: H x W (image): 14 1/2 × 14 3/8 in. (36.8 × 36.5 cm)
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Musicians
• Topic: Photography
• Topic: Popular music
• Object number: 2014.152.4
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: © Anthony Barboza Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.