Paparazzi: Photographers Who Stalk Celebrities

Lindsay Lohan drives her new Mercedes into another car in an alleged attempt to flee from paparazzi. Britney Spears drives with her five month old son on her lap, sans seat belt or car seat, and claims the paparazzi made her do it. Scarlett Johansson, running from the paparazzi, has a minor car crash in the parking lot at Disneyland. Celebrities and tabloid photographers (a/k/a paparazzi) have a love/hate relationship – celebs need these photographers in order to insure they are prominently seen and yet celebs balk at the stalking of these camera toting men and women. Paparazzi make their livelihood by capturing photographs of famous people in candid moments. Photos of Paris Hilton cavorting with her new beau can sell for large amounts of money to tabloids.

The public’s obsession with these celebrity gossip magazines has caused the paparazzi to use extreme and sometimes dangerous methods to obtain their shots. In order to get their photos, paparazzi will wait in back alleys, public streets and areas for a star to appear. While stars may complain about paparazzi, they are considered public figures who have ‘voluntarily achieved fame or notoriety’ and thus have fewer privacy rights that an ordinary person. Most paparazzi have a large network of informants, including hair stylists, waiters, sales people and driving attendants who are paid to relate info about stars.

After the 1997 death of Princess Diana when her car crashed during a high speed chase by paparazzi in Paris, celebrities and the public expressed their frustration and fear over the extreme tactics used by tabloid photographers. Police believed that the pursuit by seven photographers of Diana and boyfriend contributed to the crash and subsequent deaths. Celebrities and public figures across the world expressed their outrage and concern at the increasingly outrageous methods that paparazzi engage in.

The state with the largest number of celebrities and paparazzi – California – enacted a new law on Jan. 1, 2006 to combat the rash of illegal incidents related to these photo ops. The “Paparazzi law” allows celebrities to sue a paparazzi for any damages inflicted while attempting to obtain the photo. Further photographers who lose a suit will not be allowed to receive payment for the involved photo. Publishers may also be found liable. This new law amends a 1998 California bill which held to the doctrine of “constructive trespass” where use of a long lens in order to obtain a picture of a person who reasonably expected privacy was akin to trespassing.

Celebrity photos can be sold for prices ranging from a low of 150. for a lesser known celebrity to 500k for a well known celebrity caught in an interesting situation. With so many paparazzi taking the same photograph (i.e. at red carpet events where they wait in a pen), prices for photos are actually coming down for event photos. Hence the competition for a celeb off guard photo. It should be noted that many celebs enter into exclusive agreements with photographers allowing them access to their family in exchange for full disclosure as to where photo will run. These photographers like to call themselves “celebrity photographers.”

In April 2003 Hewlett-Packard filed a patent application for a digital camera with a circuit allowing it to be triggered remotely to blur a facial image captured by the camera. This would allow the paparazzi weary celeb to remotely change a photograph – of course such a system would have to be accepted by both paparazzi and celeb.

The reality is that as long as the public remains obsessed with celebrities, there will be paparazzi. While celebrities may justifiably complain about the tactics of these photographers, the truth is that without them many stars would have no public exposure – a necessary element of any stardom. For better or worse, the paparazzi and celebrity have a synergistic relationship.