An interesting conversation sparked up with a friend and I over lunch today. I was talking about a recent post by the Internet’s Wil Wheaton (I have decided that should really be his title), where he was harassed by a paparazzi while out on vacation with his wife. This guy essentially camped out at a beach to take pictures for HOURS, behaved like a true douchbag (wait, paparazzi), and then was defeated by Wil since Wil posted pictures of himself online.
The interesting conversation was really about how to thwart the paparazzi, and I think Wil nailed it. Sure, there are tools like the “Anti-paparazzi sunglasses” but the best way is to defeat their purpose in the first place. The whole goal of the paparazzi is to catch a photo of some celebrity doing something embarrassing, or in an incriminating pose. These photos are then sold off to the various tabloids or “news” sites, usually for a sad amount of money too.
The Anti-Razzi
So here is my proposition, as a photographer, ANY celebrity can hire me, for ANY amount of money (yes, ANY. Give me a dollar, buy me a Chai Latte, don’t care) and I will follow you around and take pictures of stuff you do. Be embarrassing, pick your nose, fart in public! You and I will review the pictures together and decide* which pictures to use, then I will post them online under the Creative Commons licence FOR FREE. The goal being to beat the paparazzi at their own game. if there are already pictures of you out there on the internet, they can’t sell theirs.
If enough celebrities start contracting out their own Anti-Razzi, it would kill off the scumbag market!
Oh, it would also help that, if you are a celebrity, don’t do anything stupid, like drugs, or hookers, or hookers on drugs. (But hey, if you want me to take pictures of that, I….umm…maybe not)
Anyways, just saying you should think about it. My services are available!
*Bound by contract, no leaked pictures.
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