How do paparazzis make money
I find it weird that people go around and devote their time and effort chasing other people (celebrities) just to get a picture of them. Is it a job? How do they make money off it?
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Answers ( 1 )
Independent photographers who specialize in selling their candidly taken celebrity photos to news media are referred to as paparazzo (plural: paparazzi.) The vast majority of customers for these photos are tabloid publications that focus on celebrity gossip in print or online. They will pay a considerable amount for a photo that shows (or appears to show from a particular angle) a celebrity in a compromising situation. Such outlets are happy to get shots of someone known for being glamorous simply having a bad hair day or otherwise not at their best. Celebrities do not have an expectation of privacy in public under US law and in many other countries, so opportunistic photographers like these can thrive on ambushing anyone famous or famous for the moment. In an age when so many newspapers and magazines have been killed off by the internet, it is sad that garbage filled print tabloids are still going strong.
There are legitimate independent photographers who refuse to hound celebrities, they focus on getting footage of newsworthy events as they unfold. Calling them paparazzi would be considered a grave insult. They may be independent, sell to national news agencies like AP or UPI.
Years ago my family hosted a foreign exchange student who was an avid photographer and had a professional quality camera. Early one Sunday morning we heard a loud thump and after we ran outside and verified that a storm had not blown a large branch onto our roof, we spotted smoke in the distance.
Our student ran back into the house, grabbed his camera and we jogged a few blocks away to a local furniture store that we discoveted had blown up and was on fire. We eventually learned that a gas leak had occurred and that the building had filled with gas then exploded. Fortunately no one was hurt.
He began snapping photos from various vantage points and the fire fighters when they arrived. When a local newspaper reporter arrived, they asked if he was with Associated Press and for one of his business cards. He was tall and looked like an adult, so they assumed he was a professional photographer. He was willing to allow the paper to use his photos for free and was very happy to simply be credited in the newspaper.