Michael J brings and style to photo
Though singing is not his forte, Michael Jackson still leaves a lasting impression with his photography, his eye for detail making him much sought after.
Michael originally had the impression that photography was boring and whatever caused anyone to take a second glance was fake and altered, until 2012 when he stumbled on a black and white photo of the seawalls by one of Guyana’s photography legends, Michael C Lam on social media. Astounded by what he saw, his research and introduction to the photography world began.
Michael was born on October 28, 1985. At the time American pop star Michael Jackson was at the peak of his career and an uncle of the photographer who was a big fan of the ‘King of Pop’ thought his nephew should be named Michael as he already had Jackson as his surname. His life began in Wales, West Bank Demerara, but when he was just months old, his parents relocated along with him and an older brother (now deceased) to Tucville.
Michael explained that his family was really poor and though they settled in Tucville, their home was situated in a squatting area and built with wood reclaimed from a building that was demolished. He attended St Christopher’s Nursery and Tucville Primary before taking a transfer to St Andrew’s Primary. The death of his grandfather saw the family returning to live in Wales. By this time his sister had come along and she joined her two older brothers travelling to Georgetown every day for school. He moved along to East Ruimveldt Secondary School but was later transferred to Patentia Secondary School. His name earned him a hard time in secondary school, and when the star Michael Jackson faced sexual assault charges, things got even worse for him, but he learnt to ignore the taunts.
Although Michael got as far as fifth form, he did not write the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate exams because he did not think he was prepared and also because he could not let his parents pay for subjects when they could barely afford it, so he dropped out of school.
When he left school, he immediately got a job as a porter at Hadi’s Bargain Store. He gravitated towards computers, graphics specifically and most of what he learnt was self-taught. When Michael went to Global Technology to write the exams to get a certificate for Graphic Designing, they told him he needed to do the training before they could allow him to do the exam and were surprised that he finished the entire syllabus in an hour. Impressed, Global Technology offered him a job on the spot, but at the time he was already working at Gafoors as a Graphic Designer and so he declined the offer.
At Gafoors, Michael was equipped with a digital camera. Some of his responsibilities included taking photographs of the company’s products then removing the background to isolate the images before placing them in various designs. That was the most knowledge he had about a camera and photography until coming across Lam’s seawall photo. This led Michael to research photography in Guyana and in doing so he found the Guyana Photographers Facebook page. The members of this group, he said, assisted him with whatever questions he had. With the company’s camera at hand, Michael began watching YouTube videos, reading articles on photography and signed on to Lynda.com, then tried what he saw with the camera. However, because the camera had no manual control there was only so much he could do.
In 2013, Gafoors bought a bridge camera and while he was able to try some new things, it was still limited as it did not have the functions of DSLP camera. Disappointed, Michael decided to purchase one of these cameras, but he did not have the finances. So, he approached Mr Gafoor and made the request, p ing to pay back in monthly insta from his salary. Less than a mon on April 25, 2014, Michael recei first professional camera. His ph phy journey began almost imme He believes that God had his h this all along and added that eve he first held his camera his lif pletely changed, and he ha incredible improvements since.
But he also made the point th not just about having expensive ment as while that makes photo easier, it does not make one’s better; the art of photography is that is learnt overtime.
“The love for photograph somehow consumed me withou ing. Photography is my hobby than a profession and my way expression. I take pictures to my interpretation of the world me,” Michael said.
There came a time when the designer realized that he nee make a change in his job. After y working directly with Mr G Michael realized that he needed it quits. It was a hard decision to the artist said. For many years arrived at work at 7.30 am Mon Saturday and left late at nigh when Mr Gafoor himself deci leave. But knowing what he ne do to reach certain goals in l sadly typed out his resignation He said he went through with it i but the older man understoo wished him well. He recalled tha beginning of his time there, Gafo nicknamed him Elvis because love for Elvis Presley; the name and Michael was referred to as E his colleagues over the years.
Michael then worked in grap Giftland for a short period, t