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|| SportsShooter.com: News Item: Posted 2005-08-18
Review: 'Paparazzi' by Peter Howe
What Photographers Should Be Reading
By Jim McNay, Brooks Institute of Photography
For a quick look at what many consider the dark side of editorial photography, former director of photography at LIFE magazine Peter Howe has walked the mean streets and has reported back in this volume.
Howe's reporting is solid. He takes us back to the roots of the current insanity to post-World War II Europe. We get some of the great pictures and stories of Rome's Via Veneto captured so well in Fellini's feature film "La Dolce Vita."
Along with his own writing, Howe wisely includes considerable input from veterans of this world, including but not limited to Ron Galella and the infamous Phil Ramey. Susan Sarandon, the one star who would talk to him, provides insight from someone frequently on the receiving end of photographers' attention.
Included are some fine stories about how photographers broke into the business. A few started covering news events and migrated over to other kinds of "breaking" pictures. Others started bluffing their way into concerts and other "closed" events and found they enjoyed the rush.
But if being liked is important, Howe and the photographers he talked to point out this is not the business to enter. Many times celebrities do not want to be photographed or do not want their children photographed. All kinds of people put up hurdles to getting this work done. It ain't easy. Read how Brad Pitt played a game of, "Get Even" with a photographer. Learn Cameron Diaz' favorite "sign."
Howe does a great job of covering other realities here, such as spending hours in one's car either waiting or hunting or engaged in a high speed chase. These are what Howe calls the "stalkers," doing stake-outs, "door-stepping" in front of someone's home, looking for stars doing ordinary things in life. Knowing where the subjects will be is a key.
(Quiz question: For what event did photographers have llama costumes?)
A Howe-To Stalker Tip: Cash for payoffs- and lots of them, for tipsters and for access.
Besides the stalkers are the "crashers." They are great at finding a way in to the big event and getting the pictures. They excel when they cannot be credentialed or when there simply are no credentials.
A Howe-To Crasher Tip: There is ALWAYS a back door.
Of course these pictures are not necessarily what many would consider high quality photographs. But these are pictures editors and audiences want to see. The chapter on the "three divas" - Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie Onassis and Princess Diana - reminds us of what the audience wants.
Along with the guilty pleasure of checking out this industry (and seeing some of the "work") Howe throws in some fun when he gets to his chapter called, "Morals, Ethics, and Other Hurdles." His subtitle for this one is, "Yes, it's the shortest chapter in the book." And Steven Ginsburg's quote sums it up pretty well. He says, "There are a lot of small things that enter into the job-you know, like morals."
So for a good quick look into this world, this book tells many interesting tales. At the end photographers will know if this is for them or not-and whether they want to always be looking for their competition behind that shrub!
Photographers, particularly those in school or seeking to break into the photojournalism, are welcome to send ideas for future columns to Jim McNay at jim.mcnay@brooks.edu.
Questions about getting started in photojournalism that might be answered in future columns are also welcome.
Related Links:
Book: Paparazzi
Jim McNay's Member Page
Related Email Addresses:
Jim McNay: jim.mcnay@brooks.edu
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