With his nerdy looks and humble background, he seems like a typical Asian boy from the Midlands.
But flash forward a decade and the child in these photos, now Adnan Ghalib, is a fame-hungry photographer AND the boyfriend of multi-millionaireness singer Britney Spears.
From a clean-cut kid to a bespectacled Birmingham teenager, the young Adnan Ghalib is a far cry from the self-assured photographer now dating the world-famous troubled pop princess.
For several years, Ghalib has been one of the many photographers who earns a wage simply by following Britney Spears’ every move.
But these pictures show Adnan, before he became infamous, as an innocent, nerdy, young boy growing up in a traditional Muslim family.
The young geeky Ghalib can be seen a family parties in dowdy shirts and at the age of 17 he was sporting a moustache and beard.
Originally from Afghanistan, Adnan moved with his family to London in 1977 as a five-year-old refugee and then to Birmingham.
Adnan’s home was a humble terraced house on a predominantly Muslim street about five miles from the centre of Britain’s second city.
He went to the Marlborough Infant School in Small Heath and then attended the nearby Sheldon Heath Comprehensive.
In his late teens, he made the journey south to London where he stayed for a few years before jetting out to America to see his sister Farah, who had moved out to California with her husband.
He later settled in California, where he managed a strip bar before branching out as a paparazzo.
Though married, he’s been separated from his wife, Azlynn Berry, for about a year.
He has rarely been back to his home city - his last trip was in August 2006 to attend a friend’s cousin’s wedding.
In these childhood pictures, young Adnan with his heavy black-rimmed glasses looks quite the nerd.
And friends confirm that the young Adnan’s interests, back when these family album photos were taken in the early and mid 80s, were much simpler. With the young Muslim enjoying cricket, Bangra music and hanging out with his friends.
A childhood pal, who grew up with the 35-year-old in the Small Heath district of Birmingham, remembered him as a “smooth-talking charmer”.
“One thing about him, was that he always had this ability to put a smile on your face”, said the friend.
His pal said: “There was a big group of us who knocked about together, we all lived in neighbouring streets and we’d all socialise in the same places.
“Adnan was a bit older than me but my family knew his family so I got to know him that way.
“He was quite an out-going person with bags of charisma but when I knew him, girls were the last thing on our minds.
“Instead we would meet up and and play cricket down the local park. He was a very keen sportsman who liked most sports but cricket and football in particular.
“Funnily enough, he wasn’t really into pop music either but the more traditional Bangra music, which at that time in the early 80’s was very popular with young Muslims.
“We never really talked about girls, he was only 14 when I went around with him, but he was a smooth-talking charmer at that age so I guess he must have used that to snare Britney.
“He looked out for me and I looked out for him, we were quite a close-knit bunch of pals.
“Adnan was a funny guy, always larking around, and we all used to have a laugh but as time went on and we got older, the group started to drift apart.”
Adnan went to London for work and the friends lost touch for some years, but by the time they met up again at a wedding, the transformation from Brummie boy to celebrity snapper was complete.
The friend added: “He told me that he was now living and working in Los Angeles, taking photos of some of the world’s most famous people in Hollywood.
“I thought he was having me on at first, I’d never once seen him pick up a camera or even show the remotest interest in one back in Birmingham.
“The first I heard about his link with Britney Spears was when my cousin phoned me up and said ‘you won’t guess who is on the news dating Britney?’
“I wish him luck, though. She is going through a tough time losing custody of her kids but I’m sure Adnan will help her through it.”
The photographer has been linked to Spears, 26, since her very public meltdown when she locked her two young children in her house and refused to hand them back to ex Kevin Federline.
There have been rumours that Ghalib had been working on an elaborate plot to charm the singer and eventually convince her to marry him.
It is now thought that Spears has employed him as her personal assistant and pays him several thousand pounds a week for his services as a driver and assistant, according to sources. In addition he has apparently been cleaning the singer’s house, running general errands and acting as her chief defender and representative in interviews.
Seemingly unconcerned by her new boyfriend’s money-making pursuits, Spears has been spending most of her time with Ghalib, who recently moved into her Malibu mansion.
And over the weekend, according to a source, she bought him a brand new Mercedes to drive her around in.
“Britney is showering Adnan with gifts because she’s desperate to hang on to him,” a source told Mail Online.
“She sees him as the one constant in her life right now. She’s totally blind to his money making schemes.”
Indeed, a new sports car is said to be the least of Mr Ghalib’s financial ambitions. Sources say he is looking to profit as much as possible from his relationship with Miss Spears.
One source says he is charging upwards of $1,000 to talk to US magazine reporters “off the record” about their relationship.
He recently got his fingers burned when he tried to sell photos of him together with Britney for £500,000. He ended up making just £20,000 - with a large percentage purportedly being taken by Britney herself.
