The Origin of the Paparazzi

What image comes to mind when you hear the word “paparazzi”? If you picture photographers relentlessly following celebrities, then you’re probably right on. But where did the term “paparazzi” come from, and how did it come to represent a group of freelance photographers whose goal is to get a big money shot of a celebrity?

The origin of the paparazzi can be traced back to the late 1950s. Magazines were looking for pictures of celebrities that weren’t staged, and they were prepared to offer a healthy payment to those that could get them candid photos, especially those that put celebrities in compromising positions.

The first of these was taken by a photographer named Tazio Secchiaroli in Rome in 1958. He took a shot of King Farouk of Egypt as he became upset after being photographed while he sat with two women, neither of which were his wife. The pair got in a scuffle, and a partner with Secchiaroli got another shot of the scene. The beginnings of a new type of photographer had begun, but these men weren’t known as paparazzi–yet.

An Italian film producer named Federico Fellini was working on a plot for a film about the current culture in Rome at the time, which was that of self-indulgence and high society. Fellini contacted Secchiarioli and even modeled the news photographer character in the movie after him, calling him Paparazzo. The film came…