Paparazzi!
Photographers, Stars, Artists
Edited by Clément Chéroux

Hardcover
320 pages
479 illustrations
ISBN: 978-2-08-020193-5
£40

In an age when I suppose it could be suggested with all the use of mobile phones for taking photographs that we could be considered to be paparazzi. However I think that once you have read this in-depth study of the paparazzi industry most will agree that we have a long way to go to capture some of the iconic images of celebrities such as Jackie O, Elizabeth Taylor, Princess Diana, Britney Spears, Mick Jagger, and OJ Simpson.

Diana and Marilyn Shopping
2000
© Alison Jackson

It seems strange to be writing this review so soon after the death of Anita Ekberg who was the star of Fellini’s 1960 film La Dolce Vita which was part of the origins of this photographic phenomenon as one of the characters in the film was a photographer called Paparazzo. The book looks at the processes, tricks of the trade, the relationship between celebrity and photographer in detail and features interviews with some of the more prominent photographers.
The impact of paparazzi images on artists such as Cindy Sherman and Richard Hamilton is also considered.