This month’s 50th anniversary of Federico Fellini’s cinematic masterpiece “La Dolce Vita” also marks a half-century of another pop-cultural phenomenon: The paparazzi, first introduced to the culture at large by the movie itself.
Named in some collective-unconscious way after a character called “Paparazzo” — who races around Rome as part of a roving pack of celebrity photographers — the real-life paparazzi fittingly exploded in Rome two years later. In April 1962, they caught the exceptionally glamorous Liz Taylor and Richard Burton in a clinch, on a yacht, oblivious to the world. That picture raced around the globe and ended both their marriages. It also established the paparazzi as the documentarians of postmodern culture, elevating and denigrating movie stars, musicians and politicians alike, depending on the day.
In more recent times, the death of Princess Diana in a car crash in Paris (pursued through a tunnel by the paparazzi) and the explosion of tabloid magazines, reality TV and digital technology have generated a fascination with the paps that nearly rivals the stars they shoot. In fact, two new documentaries on the paparazzi just premiered at the Sundance Film Festival: “Smash His Camera,” about legendary photographer Ron Galella; and actor Adrian Grenier’s “Teenage Paparazzo,” a clever take on the culture as studied through a 14-year-old paparazzo with a skateboard, a smart mouth and apparently no curfew.
“My film,” says Grenier, “is about personal responsibility and having a healthy amount of self-awareness instead of trying to cast stones and place blame.”
It’s an interesting approach, especially given that most celebs, more often than one might think, are actually working with the paps — which might explain the recent lack of truly stunning paparazzi images, which, by definition, are candid shots of unguarded moments. (The best recent example: The first “paparazzi” shot of a pregnant Gwyneth Paltrow with Chris Martin, which was actually set up by the couple, then shot and sold to the tabs by Paltrow’s brother’s girlfriend.)
In honor of the paps’ 50th, the Post consulted with a panel of experts, who explained what makes the following seven images among the best artistically, contextually and narratively.