I felt Peter Phun’s “Street Photography Tips for the Modern World” was very informative, although I found it interesting that paparazzi and street photographers seem to have a completely different set of rules as far as being respectful. He says, “[j]ust remember, if they’re not happy with your presence with the camera, be a good sport and move on…Take no for an answer unless you’re a paparazzi-in-training.” Celebrity quite literally means ‘the state of being celebrated,’ yet it seems that one cannot simultaneously be celebrated and have the right to say ‘no’ to any photos of themselves. It is curious to me that the police tend to protect average people that wish to dismiss a photographer on the street, but celebrities are held strictly to the law: “no one should expect privacy in a public space.”
I recall watching a video of Taylor Swift talking about her recent vacation in Hawaii. Before the trip, she had asked that people respect her privacy while she was away and that paparazzi did not follow her for the week. The morning of her last day, she was shocked that everyone had actually honored her request. She had not seen any photographers and no photos had yet surfaced on the internet. That afternoon though, while whale watching in the middle of the ocean, they spotted what they thought was a fishing boat in the distance. Her security guards got out their binoculars and saw that there were indeed paparazzi following them with long lens cameras that shot up to three miles away. It turns out, she had not seen any photographers because they were at such far distances during the entirety of the trip and had yet to post their photos.
While I understand that Swift and her friends were technically in public domain, I feel that if this were an ordinary person being photographed in such a way on vacation, the situation would be treated very differently. Instead of referring to these photographers as “stalkers” as anyone would in a non-celebrity situation, they are referred to as annoying “paparazzi” and the incident is overlooked. Police often have no problem stopping unwanted pictures of themselves or, like Phun mentions, a mother and child in the park, so what makes celebrity situations so different?
3 comments:
I think the only "difference" is that people feel entitled to knowing everything about a celebrity's life. That's the unfortunate culture we live in. Celebrities exist for our consumption, and we deserve to know where they are, who they're with, what they're doing, what they're wearing, at all times. And often because we only ever see pictures of these people, and more often than not don't ever get the opportunity to meet them, all we know are pictures. All we know of their humanity and existence is media. I think you have a unique perspective, since you have actually met Taylor Swift, and you are able to treat her as a human being more easily than others, who only see her as a celebrity, a picture in a magazine.
While I do agree with Kelsey that our culture does seem to hinge on celebrity affairs, I disagree that we have the right to do so. I think that it's sad that celebrities, who are often just really successful artists in their own rights, somehow become a possession of the people and lose all of their privacy. It doesn't seem fair. I would be lying if I said that I've never opened a celebrity gossip article, and I have never met Taylor Swift, but I do recognize her as a person and as an artist, and while I don't expect that she'll ever actually receive normalcy or privacy, I do believe that she is entitled to it. Just because someone is a talented musician, or actor, or whatever they choose to be, doesn't mean that the world needs or deserves to know what color underwear they wore on Christmas or what flavor of juice they had at breakfast. And what's sadder to me is that people have made entire careers on reported such specifics.
I really liked your connection to the paparazzi and celebrities, its so interesting how the paparazzi gets this free range to photograph celebrities, whenever and however they want. Especially when it often puts themselves, the celebrities, and surrounding people in harms way i.e. Princess Diana. I recently watched an episode of "Inside Man" with Morgan Spurlock (the supersize me guy) where he spends a week training as a paparazzo in Los Angeles. He shadows a paparazzi vet, traveling around the city hunting down celebrities. It is revealed to him just how frighteningly stalkerish the paparazzi is in reality. They know where all the major celebrities hang out, where they go to the gym, where they live, the year, make, model, color, and license plate numbers on their cars. I under stand that one can't expect privacy in the public domain but paparazzi strip all hopes of privacy away from these people to a level that is frightening.
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