Thus armed, he would find his way in to forbidden places, for example, the salons where high-ranking politicians of the era between the two World Wars pondered the new order of Europe. Salomon used a camera with a very light-sensitive lens, which he usually hid in his briefcase or coat. No one before him had dared risk doing this. A lawyer by training and a self-taught photographer, he gained access to major political events and was the first to secretly take photographs in a courtroom – something that was, and still is, forbidden. In a way this all began in the 1930’s with Erich Salomon. The paparazzi were legendary, and today they are feared. He too penetrates into their private sphere, yet the celebrities generally acquiesce to the photographic unmasking with a smile. Jean Pigozzi, the photographer included in the exhibition title, has been able to cultivate the kind of intensive and intimate relationship with the rich and the famous that is so desperately sought after by the paparazzi at large. There will always be paparazzi shots that cross over into celebrity and portrait photography. The exhibition offers an overview and critical look at the history of a photographic genre dedicated to fame and sensationalism. Presenting approximately 350 B/W and colour prints by Salomon, Weegee, Galella, Quinn, Angeli, Secchiaroli, Pigozzi and Newton, the exhibition displays the forerunners and central figures of Paparrazi Photography – and provides a visual commentary about the evolution of this phenomenon. For example, the photographer Ron Galella lost several teeth when he suffered a well-aimed punch from Marlon Brando thereafter he often wore an American Football helmet any time he expected to come across Brando at a public event. Nevertheless, once in a while a fight would break out between the hunter and the hunted when a photographer got too close or was discovered in his hiding-place. They were taken “from a safe distance” with the photographer often going unnoticed.
In hardly any of these photographs was there ever time for the subject to strike a pose. We encounter Alain Delon and Prince Charles, Mick Jagger and Woody Allen, Sophia Loren and Grace Kelly, Brigitte Bardot and Marlene Dietrich at parties, on the street, at the beach and so on.
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