Tom Wolfe
[Writer, b. 1930, Richmond, Virginia, d. 2018, New York.]
Then 1967’s Photographer of the Century made his entrance at a dead run, carrying a stroboscopic 35mm camera. He bolted into the tubercular-blue gleam of the room and hurled himself toward the floor, feet first like a baseball player going into second base. He slid ... an ectomorphic sliver... sweeping through one and all, flailing away at the film advance lever of his camera, squeezing off six, eight, ten pictures about calf level during his furious skid. Stroboscopic lights burst all around. They were like rockets.
Helmut Newton
[Photographer, b. 1920, Berlin, d. 2004, Los Angeles.]
In 1936 I arranged to have myself thrown out of school as a hopeless pupil. I wanted to be a paparazzo.
Ron Galella
[Photographer, b. 1931, Bronx, New York, lives in New York.]
Celebrities were quick to understand that paparazzi could make icons of them. The more a star is followed and admired, the greater the adulation. So they raised the stakes, sometimes hiding when they don’t even need to. Today, stardom is more ephemeral and it’s photography that gives them their celebrity status.
Jean Baudrillard
[Writer and theorist, b. 1929, Reims, France, d. 2007, Paris.]
The image is not a medium for which we have to find the proper use. It is what it is and it is beyond all our moral considerations. It is by its essence immoral, and the world’s becoming-image is an immoral process.
Homer Simpson
[Cartoon character, b. 1987, Tracey Ullman Show, lives in Springfield.]
How do you want your comeuppance? Eight by ten or wallet size?
(As a vengeful paparazzo)
Ron Galella
[Photographer, b. 1931, Bronx, New York, lives in New York.]
I got in my car and followed [Marlon Brando] down to Chinatown, and got about twelve shots. Brando called me over and said, “What else do you want that you don’t have already?” And I said, “I’d like a picture without the sunglasses.” He said no and punched me right in the jaw, It was so fast I didn’t see it coming. Blood was gushing out of my mouth. I drove to Bellevue. The jawbone and five teeth were broken... To this day he has scars on his knuckles from my teeth.
Charles, Earl Spencer
[Secondary royalty, b. 1964, Althorp, Northamptonshire, England, lives in Althorp.]
It would appear that every proprietor and editor of every publication that has paid for intrusive and exploitative photographs of her, encouraging greedy and ruthless individuals to risk everything in pursuit of Diana’s image, has blood on his hands today.
(On the paparazzi role in the car crash death of his sister, Lady Diana)
Helmut Newton
[Photographer, b. 1920, Berlin, d. 2004, Los Angeles.]
It’s quite true that what I am aiming at, even when I take portraits, is to get a scandalous picture. I would love to be a paparazzo.
