Late Night Thoughts on Photographing Celebrities

Seeing the ads for the upcoming Tommy Lee event at HöM got me thinking about the nature of shooting celebrities at public appearances and how many I can count in my portfolio and how it affects my art—for good or evil. I don’t currently have a “celebrities” portfolio on view. Would having one show that as a photojournalist, I can get the job done when it’s time to get that money shot, or does showcasing such images whose merit is mostly the people in them detract from my work and make me merely a paparazzi?

I for one have never been one to be impressed by celebrity­­. As a teen I met a lot working for NASCAR’s private country club—but it seems I’ve brushed elbows with quite a few in the last 12 months. Let’s see… of the top of my head:

• NFL greats Howie Long and Bubba Smith were at the Bronko Nagurski Awards. Which was pretty cool. I meet so many Panthers and NASCAR drivers I hardly notice, but these guys definitely are note worthy.
  
• The two guys who played Christopher and Artie from the Sopranos I got to follow around all night last week at The Forum.
  
• A couple months before that, there was Kevin Dillon form HBO’s Entourage.
  
• I met Jeremy Jackson prior to an Ed Hardy fashion show—he actually took the time to ask for my card and later sent me (or his secretary) an email to let me know it was nice to meet me and that he liked the photos he’d seen from my show. He even had a couple on his myspace page for a while.
  
• Last spring I had the honor of being invited to Level Cross to meet Richard Petty—I’d written a book tracing the history of auto-racing in the region through photography and Mr. Petty asked if I’d deliver him an autographed copy for his library (TRUE STORY). My book featured a very young Richard on the cover and I did two things I never do with celebrities—I asked him to autograph one of my books and posed for a photo. Cheesy, I know.
  
• Perhaps the most significant celebrity experience I had didn’t even involve working. I was in New York City last February and went to a book signing at Taschen to meet photographer David LaChapelle and Amanda Lepore, who were also promoting David’s new gallery show of work inspired by earlier paintings of the Biblical Deluge. We chatted for a minute and David slipped me an invite to a party he was having. I cant go into all the details, but it was definitely one of the coolest parties I’ve ever been to.

I often find myself feeling sorry for these celebrity-types when I meet them. Sure, they’ve got money, sex, private jets… but they’re also surrounded by people who something from them, constantly being pawed at and harassed. It’s gotta suck not to be able to eat in a restaurant without being constantly interrupted or leisurely enjoy the park.

So in answer to the question I posted at the beginning of the blog: No. I’m not yet paparazzi. The celebrity jobs just happen—I don’t really seek them out. They really aren’t any different for me than any other gig, I think as long as I can do my job with professionalism, human empathy and attention to the art of it, I haven’t crossed that line yet.