Photo: Todd Huffman
Photo: Todd Huffman

By Chloe Anderson-Dixon

Everyday we walk past magazine stands in supermarkets and shops, in which we see a celebrity’s face plastered over the front of every magazine with some sort of shocking headline involving the latest scandal or news on that particular celebrity.

However, recently the paparazzi have come under fire due to their, at times, aggressive means of taking these pictures, and invasion of privacy. The question is, are the paparazzi going too far, or are they just doing their job?

The paparazzi are individual contractors for which their jobs are to track down celebrities and flash as many pictures as they can to create a story and satisfy their everyday consumer. The paparazzi do their job by providing us with the everyday good, bad and ugly pictures of our favourite celebrities. However, there have been recent cases in which they have gone too far in the pursuit of a celebrity and to get their picture.

Some may say that celebrities should accept that being famous is accepting that both your personal and professional life will be watched and criticised by the media 24/7, yet this does not mean that they deserve to have their lives constantly swarmed with flash photography, with not a minute to themselves without being watched.

One of the most recent cases of this happening is the Kate Middleton scandal. A French magazine published topless photos of Kate Middleton, whilst she was sunbathing during a private stay at a relative’s holiday home. The photos were taken with a long lens camera, so there was no way in which Kate could have been aware of this with the ‘pap’ being at least two kilometres away.

This is a clear invasion of privacy, in which a ‘pap’ camped out for several days, unnoticed, in order to get these pictures. It is an extreme case of violation of privacy and of Kate herself, and the Paparazzi should in no way be allowed to get this close to somebody’s personal life and space. Especially due to the fact they were in a private vicinity and in which Kate was clearly in a very vulnerable position.

These men and women behind the cameras have become increasingly aggressive in recent years, often shouting out comments and questions in order to get a response from celebrities to attempt to get a perfect shot. This can often be quite dangerous, especially when they are trailing behind the stars on the road.

Recently, paparazzo Chris Guerra was hit by a car and killed as he ran out into the road whilst in pursuit of Justin Bieber. Cases like this clearly show the price the paparazzi will pay to get a good picture of one of our favourite celebrities, and tragedies like this cannot be allowed to carry on. Some say that the fault was with driver, who was driving too fast, however if someone is willing to risk their lives in order to get a perfect picture, can we not see that this has been taken too far?

The relationship between celebrities and paparazzi is a very complex one. The celebrities themselves will tell you how awful these people are, yet they will also use them whenever it is convenient for them.

Celebrities such as ‘The Hills’ stars Spencer and Heidi are known for calling on the paparazzi when they are going to be in a certain place, so for cases like this we should not be made to feel sorry for these people. However, in cases such as Kate Middleton’s, and the tragedy of Chris Guerre, it is clear that in today’s society, we are far too lenient on the Paparazzi, and legislation needs to be put into place as to how far we allow the paparazzi to go when trying to capture that perfect picture.