The American photographer, pioneer of the stolen image of celebrities in the 1960s and 1970s, died on Saturday April 30, at the age of 91 years.
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He could not have photographed the Met gala, which he had however followed assiduously for fifty years until 2019, bringing together his images in a book. American photographer Ron Galella died on Saturday April 30 at 91, two days before the return to New York, after the pandemic, of this glamorous event where, in extravagant outfits, the only passions of his life: the stars. The paparazzi as funny as they are fierce, who liked to stage on his images, had managed to become a celebrity, in his own way: “I would not have liked to be an actor, because the actors embody a character, he said in the world, in 2011. While I am a character! It’s much better! “
The American was a pioneer, launching in the 1970s in what would then become a dominant and lucrative genre: the stolen photo of celebrities. In half a century of career, he accumulated more than three million images, capturing both classic personalities of the old Hollywood, such as Audrey Hepburn or Elizabeth Taylor, as more recent stars like Brigitte Bardot, John Lennon or even Lady Gaga.
Trained in an art school in California after its service during the Korean War, this Italian-American, born January 10, 1931 and raised in a modest Bronx family, begins to track stars when they are still Accessible, at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, and went out without bodyguard. Fashion is then in the photos posed in the studio, but Ron Galella is obsessed with the idea of ”seeing extraordinary people doing ordinary things”. For this, he is ready for anything: he disguises himself, weld the staff of hotels or maternities, factory of false invitations to evenings, hideout of whole days in a warehouse, continues his prey by car, grilling all red lights, contempt for any security rule. He has his cheek for him and the speed of lightning: he adjusts his device in advance and takes the photo at arm’s length, without looking in the viewfinder. “My method is to shoot quickly. The time they say” no photo “, I have already taken two.”
In the 1970s, Ron Galella sold his shots to tabloids, such as National Enquirer, or fans magazines like Photoplay or Modern Screen, for a few hundred dollars. His images surprise by their naturalness, and by the incongruous and ordinary places where he surprises his subjects: at the restaurant, at the swimming pool, on vacation, at the airport … Jackie Kennedy walks by bicycle, Paul McCartney does his shopping at the supermarket, Andy Warhol Visit the zoo…
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