Ron Galella
Encyclopedia
Ron Galella is an American
photographer, known as a pioneer paparazzo
. Dubbed "Paparazzo Extraordinaire" by Newsweek
and "the Godfather of the U.S. paparazzi culture" by Time Magazine
and Vanity Fair
, he is regarded as the most controversial celebrity photographer in the world.
Galella's photographs can be seen in hundreds of publications including Time
, Harper's Bazaar
, Vogue
, Vanity Fair
, People
, Rolling Stone
, The New Yorker
, The New York Times
and Life
. He is widely-known for his obsessive treatment of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
and the subsequent legal battles associated with it. The New York Post called them "the most co-dependent celeb-paparazzi relationships ever." In the famous 1972 free-speech trial Galella v. Onassis, she obtained a restraining order to keep Galella 150 feet away from her and her children.
Galella is willing to take great risks to get the perfect shot. In his in-home darkroom, Galella makes his own prints which have been exhibited at museums and galleries throughout the world, including the Museum of Modern Art
in both New York
and San Francisco, the Tate Modern
in London
, and the Helmut Newton
Foundation Museum of Photography in Berlin
.
On June 12, 1973, notoriously-reclusive actor Marlon Brando
punched Galella in the face without warning outside a restaurant in Chinatown
in New York City, breaking the photographer's jaw and knocking out five of his teeth on the left-side of his mouth. Galella had pursued Brando, who was accompanied by Dick Cavett
, to the restaurant after a taping of The Dick Cavett Show
earlier that day. Galella hired Stuart Schlesinger to sue Brando and ultimately settled for $40,000. Schlesinger reported in Smash His Camera
that Galella received two-thirds, but only cared about getting the message out, "I don't want anyone to think they can go around punching me if I am taking their picture, get that story out not the money."
A Bronx native, Galella served as a United States Air Force
photographer during the Korean War
and attended the Art Center College of Design
in Los Angeles, California, graduating with a degree in Photojournalism in 1958. He currently lives in Montville, New Jersey with his wife Betty Burke Galella.
Galella is the subject of a 2010 documentary film directed by Leon Gast
entitled Smash His Camera
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
photographer, known as a pioneer paparazzo
Paparazzi
Paparazzi is an Italian term used to refer to photojournalists who specialize in candid photography of celebrities, politicians, and other prominent people...
. Dubbed "Paparazzo Extraordinaire" by Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
and "the Godfather of the U.S. paparazzi culture" by Time Magazine
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
and Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
, he is regarded as the most controversial celebrity photographer in the world.
Galella's photographs can be seen in hundreds of publications including Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, Harper's Bazaar
Harper's Bazaar
Harper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”...
, Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
, Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
, People
People (magazine)
In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
, Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
and Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
. He is widely-known for his obsessive treatment of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier "Jackie" Kennedy Onassis was the wife of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, and served as First Lady of the United States during his presidency from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. Five years later she married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle...
and the subsequent legal battles associated with it. The New York Post called them "the most co-dependent celeb-paparazzi relationships ever." In the famous 1972 free-speech trial Galella v. Onassis, she obtained a restraining order to keep Galella 150 feet away from her and her children.
Galella is willing to take great risks to get the perfect shot. In his in-home darkroom, Galella makes his own prints which have been exhibited at museums and galleries throughout the world, including the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
in both New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and San Francisco, the Tate Modern
Tate Modern
Tate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London, England. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group . It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, and the Helmut Newton
Helmut Newton
Helmut Newton, born Helmut Neustädter was a German-Australian photographer. He was a "prolific, widely imitated fashion photographer whose provocative, erotically charged black-and-white photos were a mainstay of Vogue and other publications."-Early life:Newton was born in Berlin, the son of Klara...
Foundation Museum of Photography in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
.
On June 12, 1973, notoriously-reclusive actor Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
punched Galella in the face without warning outside a restaurant in Chinatown
Chinatown
A Chinatown is an ethnic enclave of overseas Chinese people, although it is often generalized to include various Southeast Asian people. Chinatowns exist throughout the world, including East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Americas, Australasia, and Europe. Binondo's Chinatown located in Manila,...
in New York City, breaking the photographer's jaw and knocking out five of his teeth on the left-side of his mouth. Galella had pursued Brando, who was accompanied by Dick Cavett
Dick Cavett
Richard Alva "Dick" Cavett is a former American television talk show host known for his conversational style and in-depth discussion of issues...
, to the restaurant after a taping of The Dick Cavett Show
The Dick Cavett Show
The Dick Cavett Show has been the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various television networks, including:* ABC daytime ...
earlier that day. Galella hired Stuart Schlesinger to sue Brando and ultimately settled for $40,000. Schlesinger reported in Smash His Camera
Smash His Camera
Smash His Camera is a 2010 documentary film directed by filmmaker Leon Gast about the life and career of paparazzi photographer Ron Galella. In early 2010, the film won "Best Director" of a documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, began a limited U.S. theatrical release on 30 July 2010 through...
that Galella received two-thirds, but only cared about getting the message out, "I don't want anyone to think they can go around punching me if I am taking their picture, get that story out not the money."
A Bronx native, Galella served as a United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
photographer during the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
and attended the Art Center College of Design
Art Center College of Design
Art Center College of Design is a private college located in Pasadena, California, and was cited by BusinessWeek as one of the 60 best design schools in the world. The college’s industrial design program is consistently ranked number one by both DesignIntelligence and U.S...
in Los Angeles, California, graduating with a degree in Photojournalism in 1958. He currently lives in Montville, New Jersey with his wife Betty Burke Galella.
Galella is the subject of a 2010 documentary film directed by Leon Gast
Leon Gast
Leon Gast is an American documentary film director, producer, cinematographer, and editor. His documentary When We Were Kings depicting the iconic heavyweight boxing match termed The Rumble in the Jungle between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman won the 1996 Academy Award for Documentary Feature and...
entitled Smash His Camera
Smash His Camera
Smash His Camera is a 2010 documentary film directed by filmmaker Leon Gast about the life and career of paparazzi photographer Ron Galella. In early 2010, the film won "Best Director" of a documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, began a limited U.S. theatrical release on 30 July 2010 through...
.
Exhibits
- PowerHouse Arena - Man in the Mirror: Michael Jackson by Ron Galella, January 7, 2009-February 14, 2009 Brooklyn, NY
- Lena Di Gangi Gallery - The Photographs of Ron Galella, December 5, 2009-January 31, 2010 Totawa, NJ
- Irish Museum of Modern Art - Picturing New York: Photographs from the Museum of Modern Art, November 25, 2009-February 7, 2010 Dublin, Ireland
- Centaur Theatre Company - Viva l'Italia, October 6, 2009-December 6, 2009 Montreal, Canada
- MART Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto - Picturing New York: Photographs from the Museum of Modern Art, July 11-October 11, 2009 Rovereto, Italy
- La Casa Encendida - March 28, 2009-June 14, 2009, Madrid, Spain
- Archeology Museum of Muro LucanoMuro LucanoMuro Lucano is a town and comune in the province of Potenza, in the region of Basilicata, southern Italy.-History:The town is situated on the site of the ancient Numistri, at the foot of the Apennines, the scene of a battle between Hannibal and Marcellus in the second Punic war.-Main sights:The...
- Viva l'Italia, May 2009–Present - Palazzo Lanfranchi, Carlo Levi Hall - Ron Galella: Italian Icons, May 2009-June 7, 2009 Matera, Italy
- Hamburger Bahnfof Museum Fur Gegenwart - Celebrities: Andy Warhol and the Stars October 2008-February 2009
- Helmut NewtonHelmut NewtonHelmut Newton, born Helmut Neustädter was a German-Australian photographer. He was a "prolific, widely imitated fashion photographer whose provocative, erotically charged black-and-white photos were a mainstay of Vogue and other publications."-Early life:Newton was born in Berlin, the son of Klara...
Foundation Museum of Photography - Pigozi and the Paparazzi, June 2008-November 2008 Berlin, Germany - GMW Law Offices - Offguard: Ron Galella Photography, October 2008–Present Den Haag, Netherlands
- Staly-Wise Gallery - Warhol by Galella: That's Great!, May 2008–Present New York, New York
- Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen - Warhol by Galella: That's Great!, May 2008–Present Amsterdam, Netherlands
- The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel Warhol by Galella: That's Great!, May 2008–Present Hollywood, CA
- The Tate Modern Museum - Street + Stuido: An Urband History of Photography, May 2008-August 2008 London, England
- The Museum of Modern Art - Iconic Photos of Ron Galella acquired into collection, January 2008 New York, New York
- The Museum of Modern Art - Iconic Photos of Ron Galella acquired into collection, October 2007 New York, New York
- PowerHouse Arena - That 70's Show, March 2007-April 2007 Brooklyn, New York
- The Gershwin Hotel - February 2007-March 2007 New York, New York
- PowerHouse Arena - Warhol is Dead!, February 2007-March 2007
- Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen - Disco Years, December 2, 2006-January 6, 2007 Amsterdamn, Netherlands
- Buro Beelende Kunst Vlissinger Ron Galella: The One and Only Paparazzo, Brooklyn, New York
- Paul Kasmin Gallery - Disco Years, November 2005-January 2006 New York, New York
- PowerHouse Arena - Ron Galella: The Kennedy, New York, New York
- Kunstforum - Superstars: From Warhol to Madonna, October 2005-February 2006
- Ferragamo Gallery - Ron Galella Exclusive Diary: Caught Off-Guard, September 12, 2005-December 31, 2005 New York, New York
- Artelibro Festival of Art and Books - Ron Galella Exclusive Diary: Caught Off-Guard, September 22, 2005-September 26, 2005 Bologna, Italy
- Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen - The Photographs of Ron Galella, November 27, 2004-August 1, 2005, Amsterdamn, Netherlands
- Photology - Ron Galella Exclusive Diary, September 2004-November 2004 Milan, Italy
- Holt-Renfrew - Flick, September 2003-December 2003 Toronto, Canada
- Paul Kasmin Gallery - The Photographs of Ron Galella, June 2002-August 2002 New York, New York
- Andy Warhol Museum - Ron Galella Retrospective, June 2002-September 2002 Pittsburgh, PA
- Serge Sorokko GallerySerge SorokkoSerge Sorokko is an American art dealer, publisher and owner of the Serge Sorokko Gallery in San Francisco. He played a major role in establishing the first cultural exchanges in the field of visual arts between the United States and the Soviet Union during the period of perestroika...
, 1997 New York, New York - Nikon Gallery, 1993 New York, New York
- Octagon Club, 1987 New York, New York
- William Lyons Gallery, 1980 Coconut Grove, Florida
- Union Carbide, 1977 New York, New York
- Rizzoli Gallery, 1976 New York, New York
- G. Ray Hawkins Gallery, 1976 New York, New York
- Soho Gallery, 1972 New York, New York