Publisher's Description
The Photographs of Ron Galella 1960-1990
Edited by Steven Bluttal. Foreword by Diane Keaton. Introduction by Tom
Ford. Interview by Glenn O'Brien.
Voyeur. Bandit. Hound. Ron Galella has been called every name in the book. In
1955, fresh out of the United States Air Force, he became a paparazzo-and
redefined the genre. From his notoriously obsessive treatment of Jackie
Onassis and the subsequent legal battles associated with it, to his alarmingly
beautiful photographs 0f celebrities in the 60s and 70s, Galella has always
been in a category of his own. Possessed 0f a unique talent to catch stars at
moments when they seemed most alive, most human, most stylish, Galella
was able to do something no other celebrity watcher was able to do: become a
star himself.
Born in the Bronx, New York, in 1931, Ron Galella graduated from the Art
Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, with a degree in professional
arts. During the Korean War, he was a ground and air photographer for the
United States Air Force. In 1955, he became a freelance magazine and newspaper photographer, and went on to work for hundreds of publications around
the world, including Time, LIFE, Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Vanity Fair, W, The New
Yorker, The New York Times, and Rolling Stone. America's most controversial
celebrity photographer, he was dubbed 'paparazzo extraordinaire' by
Newsweek, featured on the cover of LIFE, punched in the jaw by Marlon
Brando, beaten up by Richard Burton's bodyguards, and hosed down by
Brigitte Bardot.
'Featuring images of Jackie Onassis, Frank
Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Cher, Liz Taylor, Marlon
Brando, Farrah Fawcett, Robert Redford,
Raquel Welch, Mick Jagger, and just about
every other celebrity you can think of.
Warhol voiced respect for the work of Man
Ray, Irving Penn, Weegee... but his answer for
interviewers was usually that his favorite was
Ron Galella. The reporters thought this was a
joke... but it was not.'
-from the J. Paul Getty Museum's
NadarlWarhol: Paris/New York