Pedorazzi

Every morning that someone picks up the remote and turns on the morning news, there is the usual array of overdramatic news stories and heart breaking tragedies. Towards the end of every news broadcast though, the viewer gets a glimpse of some famous actor or musician facing flashing lights and the sound of clicking shutters. Those flashing lights and clicking shudders belong to the commonly known photographers and journalists called paparazzi. Paparazzi follow celebrities almost everywhere, snapping photos whenever they catch the star leaving the safety of their home. With the constant stalking of these stars, paparazzi photographers exploit personal aspects of every celebrities lives, becoming invasive.

The word “paparazzi” originated from a character, Paparazzo, from the 1960 movie, La Dolce Vita. Paparazzo was a photographer colleague of a journalist. The origin of this name is unknown, but it is very similar to the Sicilian word for oversized mosquito, paparazzo being the singular form of paparazzi (“How”). Soon after the movie was released in Italy, “paparazzi” became the word for the photographers who followed famous actors and actresses around. The word was brought into the English language after the release of the movie, and after Time magazine displayed the article called “Paparazzi on the Prowl”. In the article, the author states “ a ravenous wolf pack of freelance photographers who stalk big names for a living and fire with flash guns at a point blank” (“How”). After this article was distributed to hundreds of thousands of Americans the term “Paparazzi” became a commonly used derogatory term. The magazines where the term “paparazzi” was first used, were Cosmopolitan, which are some of places where the photos of cel...

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... May 2014.

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