Columbia resident Michael Oberman hosted David Bowie on his first visit to America in 1971. After decades of hobnobbing with famous musicians, Oberman pivoted to nature photography. “It’s not work for me — it’s love,” he said. Photo courtesy of Michael Oberman

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When Michael Oberman was 16 years old, he landed a weekend job as a copy boy at the Washington Star. It was a small footnote in a long career that would encompass journalism, music and photography, but in retrospect, the Columbia resident, now 78, says it feels like destiny.

His older brother, Ron, was a music columnist at the paper at the time. When Ron got to interview the Beatles during their inaugural U.S. visit in 1964, young Michael was hooked. “I said to my brother, ‘What a job you got!’” Oberman recalled with a grin. He wanted in.

A few years later, still just 19 and studying journalism at the University of Maryland, Oberman seized his chance.

When Ron left for a publicity job at Mercury Records, Michael lobbied his brother’s editor to let him take over the column. She balked — after all, he wasn’t even out of his teens — but Oberman countered that his brother had started at 20. With that, he became the new voice of the paper’s music column, entering the music world, where he was seen as much a peer as a reporter.

“I had long hair; they had long hair,” he explained in an interview with the Beacon. “They knew I was cool. I was hip. They welcomed me.”

Celebrity encounters

Oberman quickly built a portfolio that reads like a who’s who of R&B and rock. He met James Brown, The Impressions, Joe Tex and The Jimmy Castor Bunch before rock’s British invasion truly reshaped the soundscape.

From 1967 to 1973, as the cultural revolution rippled through music, he was there to document it, writing stories about The Doors, the Grateful Dead and more than 300 other iconic bands.

Among the many stories that could fill a book — and eventually did — one stands apart.

In January 1971, British musician David Bowie visited America for the first time. His album The Man Who Sold the World had yet to break through in the U.S., and Ron, by then Mercury Records’ publicity director, brought Bowie over on a modest promotional tour. Bowie had one unusual request: He wanted to spend his first night with an American family.

The Obermans obliged.

Michael remembers when his brother picked Bowie up from Dulles Airport and brought him home. A now-famous photo of Bowie sitting with the Oberman family in their Silver Spring, Maryland, living room has since been viewed millions of times.

“He just wanted to hang out with an American family,” Oberman said.

That night, they didn’t dwell on Bowie’s music career. Instead, they chatted about beer. Dinner followed at Emerson’s Steakhouse (long closed). What struck Oberman most about Bowie wasn’t his fame or flamboyance, but his intellect.

“This is not to say that other artists weren’t intelligent, [but] he was the most intelligent, the most well-spoken,” he said.

Trauma and turning points

But Oberman’s journey wasn’t all glamour and rock-star hangouts. In December 1967, when he was 20, he endured a brutal mugging in Georgetown. Four young men circled him and broke bottles over his head, leaving him with life-threatening injuries. He underwent emergency neurosurgery that night.

“The surgeon told my mother, ‘This is a life-and-death situation,’” he recalled.

The attack left permanent scars, both physical and emotional, but the near-death experience also became a defining moment.

“That incident made me realize life was too short, and I was going to do what I wanted to do,” he said.

That philosophy led Oberman to the music business. Musicians he had once interviewed began urging him to check out their bands. One group asked him to manage them. Soon, he was negotiating major recording contracts.

Although the band Oberman managed eventually dissolved, as many do, he had found his footing as a manager. From the late 1960s into the early 1990s, he juggled writing with managing artists, carving out a niche in an industry that both exhilarated and exhausted him.

In 2020, Oberman published a book titled Fast Forward, Play and Rewind, which recounts Bowie’s first visit to America and features 100 interviews with other famous musicians.

From Bowie to birdwatching

At age 50, Oberman embarked on another reinvention: He turned to photography, a hobby he had long nurtured.

“I’d shot album covers before, but I decided I wanted to do something I loved — and I loved photography,” he said.

Three years later, he had committed fully, focusing on wildlife and nature. His photos now hang in permanent museum collections across the U.S. and Canada, and his first solo gallery show in 2007 drew 350 visitors, selling 40 of the 50 pieces displayed.

Photography, he says, gave him freedom. “In music, there was a lot of stress. With nature photography, I go out when I want to go out. It’s not work for me — it’s love.”

His lens has taken him from Florida’s wetlands to the islands of the Caribbean to Costa Rica. And for two decades, he has shared that love through teaching, running annual nature photography workshops in Columbia.

Even now, just two years shy of 80, Oberman remains active. In September, he spent a day photographing birds at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware, capturing scenes of marshland beauty.

“I never thought I’d still be working at 78 years old,” he said.

‘Happy to be outdoors’

Oberman has stopped doing gallery shows — tired of the 30 to 50% commission art galleries claim — and instead hosted an exhibit at his own home last June, where he sold 33 pieces.

“I have a legacy already in my writing,” he said. “And museums want my photos. I’m pretty content now. I’m happy to be outdoors.”

True to form, Oberman is still thinking ahead. He’s currently organizing a “Defend Democracy” concert for next summer, working to secure a venue and recruit major acts. Reinvention, for him, isn’t an isolated event but a lifelong pattern.

And he has advice for others, especially those over 50, who dream of reinventing themselves: Find someone who has done what you want to do and learn from them.

“People like to help people,” Oberman said. “Most people who change careers after 50 aren’t doing it to make a lot of money. They’re tired of the same old thing.

“So start part time, go on YouTube, read or find a mentor. And maybe there’s even a story in the Beacon that can inspire you.”