Paparazzi

For the 2004 film, see Paparazzi (film).

For the 2006 game, see Paparazzi (game).

Paparatchi redirects here. See Paparatchi (character).

The Paparazzi at the Tribeca Film Festival

Paparazzi is a plural term (paparazzo being the singular form) for photographers who take candid photographs of celebrities, usually by relentlessly shadowing them in their public and private activities. Celebrities claiming to have been hounded by such photographers often use "paparazzi" as a pejorative term while news agencies commonly use the word in a broader sense to describe all photographers who take pictures of people of note.

Origin

The word paparazzi was popularized after the Federico Fellini 1960 film La Dolce Vita. One of the characters in the film is a news photographer named Signore Paparazzo (played by Walter Santesso). In his book Word and Phrase Origins, author Robert Hendrickson writes that Fellini took the name paparazzi from an Italian dialect word for a particularly noisy, buzzing mosquito. In his school days, Fellini remembered a boy who was nicknamed "Paparazzo" (Mosquito), because of his fast talking and constant movements, a name Fellini later applied to the fictional character in "La Dolce Vita."

Techniques

Photographers at a protest

Technological developments in cameras (such as higher quality telephoto lenses and high speed films) enable paparazzi to shoot their subjects from afar, and often unseen. Miniaturization allows tiny palm-sized cameras that can effectively engage in secret photography. Further, digital cameras and transmission methods allow for rapid distribution of the pictures. They will tend to hide in nearby foliage to get a picture of their target.

Restrictions

Due to the reputation of paparazzi as an annoyance, some states and countries (particularly within Europe) restrict their activities by passing laws and curfews, and by staging events in which paparazzi are specifically allowed to take photographs. In Germany and France photographers need the permission of the people in their photographs.

The presence of paparazzi is not always seen as annoying; the arranger of an event may, in order to make the guests feel important, hire a number of actors who pretend they are paparazzi (so-called "faux-paparazzi"). This was, for instance, seen at extravaganza events during the dot-com boom.

Paparazzi sell their work to dozens of magazines and newspapers that publish such photos for their readers and subscribers, and many paparazzi feel that they are helping celebrities and public figures in general by increasing their visibility. Photographers often earn large sums of money for a valuable picture.

Paparazzi in the news

Some observers blamed paparazzi for the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed, who were killed in 1997 in a high-speed car accident in Paris, France, while being pursued by paparazzi. Although several paparazzi were briefly taken into custody, no one was ever convicted, and the official French investigation of the crash concluded that they had not caused the accident, and in fact the cause of the accident was a drugged and drunken driver named Henri Paul.

In 1999, the Oriental Daily News of Hong Kong was found guilty of "scandalizing the court", an extremely rare criminal charge that the newspaper's conduct would undermine confidence in the administration of justice. The charge was brought after the newspaper had published abusive articles challenging the judiciary's integrity and accusing it of bias in a lawsuit the paper had instigated over a photo of a pregnant Faye Wong. The paper had also arranged for a "puppy team" to track a judge for 72 hours, to provide the judge with first-hand experience with what paparazzi do.

Time Magazine (Style & Design) in 2005 ran a story entitled "Shooting Stars", in which Mel Bouzad, one of the top paparazzi in Los Angeles at the time, claimed to have made US$150,000 for a picture of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez in Georgia after their breakup. "If I get [a picture of] Britney and her baby," Bouzad claimed, "I'll be able to buy a house in those hills (above Sunset Boulevard)." Paparazzi author Peter Howe told Time that "celebrities need a higher level of exposure than the rest of us … so it is a two-way street. The celebrities manipulate."

Some have argued that it is the paparazzi who "make" people celebrities, but very often, the celebrities attempt to act as if they hate and fear the paparazzi. Some paparazzi have responded that if a celebrity, who sought out fame in becoming a celebrity, wants privacy, they shouldn't leave their homes.

The E! network program Celebrities Uncensored used often-confrontational footage of celebrities made by paparazzi.

Waparazzi

A new term for amateur photographers at major events was coined in February 2006 by Orange (UK). Wrote MediaGuardian, "fans armed with mobile phones were given their very own press pen outside the Odeon Leicester Square. And the name for this new breed of amateur snappers? Why, the waparazzi, of course."

Passers-by or witnesses to news events who take images later used for broadcast have been dubbed snaparazzi.