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The king of paparazzi – Ron Galella!
The paparazzi’s destiny is difficult, but Ron Gallela has become a famous, successful and one of the best photographers in the world!
Ron Galella (born January 10, 1931) is an American photographer, known as a pioneer paparazzo. Dubbed "Paparazzo Extraordinaire" by Newsweek and “the Godfather of the U.S. paparazzi culture” by Time Magazine and Vanity Fair, he is regarded as the most controversial celebrity photographer in the world.
Galella's photographs can be seen in hundreds of publications including Time, Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Vanity Fair, People, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, the New York Times and Life. He is widely-known for his obsessive treatment of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and the subsequent legal battles associated with it. The New York Post called them "the most co-dependent celeb-paparazzi relationships ever." In the famous 1972 free-speech trial "Galella v. Onassis", she obtained a restraining order to keep Galella 150 feet away from her and her children, which he violated several times. After her death in 1994, John Kennedy Jr. lifted the order and allowed Galella to photograph him at public events.
Galella is willing to take great risks to get the perfect shot. Over his nearly fifty-year career, Galella has been famously punched in the jaw by Marlon Brando in Chinatown, beaten up by Richard Burton's bodyguards in Mexico, hosed down by friends of Brigitte Bardot in Saint Tropez, had his tires slashed by Elvis Presley's security in Queens and was sued twice by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. In his in-home darkroom, Galella makes his own prints which have been exhibited at museums and galleries throughout the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in both New York and San Francisco, the Tate Modern in London, and the Helmut Newton Foundation Museum of Photography in Berlin.
A Bronx native, Galella served as a United States Air Force photographer during the Korean War and attended the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, California, graduating with a degree in Photojournalism in 1958. He currently lives in New Jersey with his wife of 30 years, Betty Burke Galella.
Galella is the subject of a 2010 documentary film directed by Leon Gast entitled Smash His Camera.
The most well-known photo was taken on October 3rd, 1971: ‘Windblown Jackie,’ Galella’s Mona Lisa. “It has all the characteristics of paparazzi photojournalism: spontaneity, the wind blowing in her hair, natural lighting, no makeup,” says Galella. “That’s what I look for – the real person rather than the contrived shot with lots of makeup and phony smiles.”
“Marlon Brando knocked five teeth out of my mouth in 1973 when I asked him to take his sunglasses off,” Galella recalls as if it were yesterday. “One of my teeth was embedded in his hand which became infected. He has scars to this day.” A subsequent photo of a football helmet-clad Galella trailing Brando is an iconic image of the photographer’s legacy.
