Photographers at Lennox Hill Hospital This Week- Page 2

[bwaybabe2]

Posted: 3/21/09 at 7:16pm

"Whatever happened to class?"
Well, you will not find it with some posters on this board...the same who probably think it's OK for this type of invasion of privacy in such a sorrowful and private event in a person's life. Yes, PERSON...celebrity should not dehumanize those who achieve this status.
I, for one, will switch the channel to send the message :{

[allofmylife]

Posted: 3/21/09 at 7:36pm

what I meant was that paparazzi are just one more step down a dehumanizing road. Ron Galella and Harvey Levin are not Mengele and Eichmann, but they are a symptom of a disease in this society that leads to the dehumanization of man.

Forty years ago, the photo of the Vietnamese Police officer executing the Viet Cong prisoner with a pistol to the head was shocking; nowadays, I see kids wearing T-shirts with the photo silk-screened on them.

Ever hear of Von Dutch? How many of us have work, or know someone who wears Von Dutch label clothes? Did you know Von Dutch was actually Kenneth Howard, an alcoholic racing car pinstriper and gunsmith, who was also a bitter, violent, anti-semetic, racist, homophobic Neo-Nazi? Hit the internets and see for yourself.

The problem is, we let things slip by, we're too busy, we have tickets to the evening performance and we miss the problems surrounding us.

I have friends who suffered a great, horrific tragedy in their lives and within minutes, despite the fact that they led normal, ordinary lives, their faces were on every TV channel, thrust there without their permission because they were "news." The press left when the news went cold several hours later. The ramifications of the press' intrusions lasted for decades.

Liam Neeson just lost his wife in perhaps one of the worst ways possible. He has two kids to raise and his heart has been ripped out. Hundreds of people showed up at th wake to say they cared. The press showed up to say they could care less.

Literally, where's the humanity?

[April Saul]

Posted: 3/21/09 at 8:23pm

I don't know if I'm one of the posters that is perceived as saying that this is "all right." I think this debate is a valuable one, but I don't think that demonizing the paparazzi--no matter how obnoxious--is the way to go here, or that the presence of media at the wake or funeral of a famous person automatically means they could care less. We get the culture we deserve, people; and right now America is more voyeuristic than ever...celebrity-hungry, internet-narcissistic, reality-TV-watching. Hopefully there'll be a tipping point, or maybe the economy will force better values on folks, at least for a while. It's not that I "accept" these things or admire them personally...but they are here for a reason.

[bwaybabe2]

Posted: 3/21/09 at 8:29pm

April Saul...I think you have a point there. The pendulum always swings back to the other side. Just like the "free love" era brought us AIDS, and other diseases and disgust with blatant casual sex, this might just have to happen for people to realize (AND appreciate) a better way to live and behave.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/21/09 at 10:03pm

They are all the same. Remember the fiasco involving them taking photos of Princess Diana while she was in the car after the accident.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 3/21/09 at 10:24pm

April Saul, I truly believe we deserve better, but we are being fed scraps and told it's fillet. We have to start asking, no demanding some respect in the world. If you don't see someone as a human being, but as a target, it makes it easier to snap photos at his/her moment of grief as just business. If you do that it makes it easier to accept crime in the streets as the luck of the draw. If you accept that, it makes it easier to accept a gunned down cop was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and when they come for you, we all accept that you must have done something to deserve it and we all turn away as you scream for help as they throw you in a cattle car...

Sure, I am exaggerating, but the paparazzi are just another of the many steps toward a world, believe me, you do not want to consider.

And why didn't someone get in those photographer's faces and tell them to lay off? Again, where is the humanity?

[sabrelady]

Posted: 3/21/09 at 10:26pm

I remember when Elizabeth Taylor had surgery to remove a benign brain tumour the papaRATzi took pictures thru the windows, hanging on rigging dropped from a room above.
Having said that, this macabre fascination w death of the notorious and the illustrious is not new. Death masks of famous people and pieces of noose that hung infamous criminals were hotly sought after in the 19th & early 20th century.
We really haven't evolve much as a culture, have we?

[BroadwayEnthusiast2]

Posted: 3/22/09 at 12:50am

In the subject of disrespect, I have a different story regarding Richardson's death. I was looking through pictures of Natasha the other day and my brother said, "Oh is that the lady that died going down the bunny trail? hahaha. She's so stupid." This really hurt because it showed how disrespectful people can be. It just shows how most kids seem to think these days, in a mostly careless manner.

[April Saul]

Posted: 3/22/09 at 12:52am

Okay, AllofMyLife, in order for you to understand where I'm coming from, I'm going to have to tell you that in 2006, I was so alarmed by the rising homicide rate in Philadelphia that I did a column for my newspaper for every kid under 18 that was killed by guns. That meant, for me, meeting nearly two-dozen grieving families, attending about that many funerals where I often stopped photographing or taking notes to cry myself and hug the mourners I'd come to know. They're still up on the internet at: http://go.philly.com/guntoll. The point of what I did that year was to put a human face on the gun violence that had become a plague on my city. Nearly every family I photographed knew exactly what I was trying to do, appreciated it, and thanked me; every column I wrote to go with my pictures was eventually read into the record in the Legislature by a state senator who was working to stop the bloodbath.

What I did, judging by the response from the community, actually made it HARDER to just accept the way these kids were being gunned down, HARDER to look away. I did it because the victims had become merely numbers, and I wanted to put a human face on the problem, so people could see exactly who we were losing through all this mindless violence. Over the years, my photos have not only been used to raise awareness, but to raise money for handicapped children and Bosnian refugees.

Obviously, I'm not a paparazzi and there are many situations where photographing tragedy is pretty purpose-less. Standing outside that hospital and snapping away at Vanessa Redgrave as she faces the horror of losing her daughter isn't going to help anyone. But for many, many years--way back to child labor and the Dust Bowl days--responsible photojournalists have documented suffering, and in doing so, have helped alleviate it.

This is why I've responded so strongly to this thread, and why I take issue with generalizations about those of us who would, from time to time, undertake to document very sad things with our cameras.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 3/22/09 at 1:47am

Yes, April, but what you are doing is using a sword to vanquish a villain. What these other guys are doing is using that same sword to subjugate the masses (well, you know what I mean.)

I never said all photographers are scum, I said a certain, VERY SMALL subset within are scum. This mentality of trying to get that "crying shot" of Liam Neeson is identical to the guys who photographed Princess Diana in the car wreck - after stalking her like big game and chasing her like a pack of hyenas.

I've seen the mob go after Britany Spears first hand AND Lindsay Lohan and believe me, these guys were swine. The pushed regular citizens out of the way, they chased them on foot, on motorcycles and in SUVs with tinted windows. They pull U-Turns in traffic, they go up on the sidewalk and they race down the streets at 60 in a 20 zone. They stalk these young women, use ladders to peer over their fences, bore holes in the walls in bathrooms, FOLLOW them into the bathroom, into stores, they flash their cameras, utterly blinding all sorts of other traffic and now, they are employing children as young as 13 who are prowling the streets at night with nothing but a camera and a cell phone. They bribe everyone in the service industries and some police and security - security can be a real joke. They have networks of informants who allert them to the locations of the stars, they go through their garbage, use cell phone eavesdrop equipment and they'll rough up anyone who tells them to go away or knock it off.

Many of the agencies import photographers from Russia or Isreal - these guys have the attitude of storm troopers and utterly no respect for the law.

I can't tell you the stories I've heard out here in Los Angeles and someone is going to get killed before this is over (ie before Chief Bratton mans up and does something about this situation.)

I am glad you are a compassionate person who uses a talent to better mankind, but even you must agree that there are those who aim a camera the way others aim a weapon.

[PRFRMR20]

Posted: 3/22/09 at 2:06am

Wow, allofmylife... what is up with this recurring theme of Jews from the Holocaust to Israel?

And to say that the paparazzi are not American... As you have mentioned TMZ before, have you ever watched the tv show? If you notice, the paparazzi videographers who are asking the celebs questions are definitely not foreigners!

[allofmylife]

Posted: 3/22/09 at 10:20am

are you deaf? Listen to the TMZ site videos and see how many foreign accents you hear.

Ie had to stand there and watch these guys at work and I can't tell you how many times they've been discussing stuff in Hebrew or in Russian (and yes, I do know the diference.) Murrdoch used to import Australians to work at his papers. He said they were more "rough-and-tumble. Now, I guess they're importing different specialists.

And I have no fixation with the Holocaust, it was just the subject of conversation here.

Check this out:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/paparazzi-admit-pursuit--of-britney-has-gone-too-far-777190.html

http://articles.latimes.com/2005/oct/16/local/me-paparazzi16

http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2008/02/11/2008-02-11_paparazzi_fear_britney_spears_shoots.html

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/23/BAGMSFB5V51.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea

Updated On: 3/22/09 at 10:20 AM

[esparza 333]

Posted: 3/22/09 at 10:49am

I wish they had shown footage of her film and stage work instead. There is plenty of footage of that and it would be much more respectful and it would shown people how amazing an actress she was. There is no need to take pictures of a grieving family famous or not famous. It makes me so mad that they always read those statements that ask for privacy and they are animals outside the hospitals taking photos of people in great pain. Papparazi are idiots who just want to make a quick buck. They have no consideration for what people are going through. They have no integrity at all. I lost faith in the entertainment media a very long time ago. This is another example of their shameful behavior and exploitation.

[April Saul]

Posted: 3/22/09 at 8:40pm

Okay, Allofmylife, I have to say that I definitely understand your posts more now that I realize you're from L.A. where paparazzi problems are legendary! Having read the articles you linked to--interesting stuff--and seen paparazzi in action a couple of years ago while I was visiting a friend at Malibu, I do have to say that although the experience of Reese Witherspoon sounds horrific, there's other famous people that seem to have a more symbiotic relationship with the photographers. One day during my visit, I watched Paris Hilton do a little dance with the photogs who staked out her beach house...she'd appear and re-appear at regular intervals, and delight in posing this way and that. It drove her Malibu neighbors crazy, but she clearly enjoyed the attention. Too bad it can't be confined to the ones who seem to thrive on it...

[allofmylife]

Posted: 3/22/09 at 10:03pm

Paris Hilton is a media whore who would bend over backward on Blackfriar Bridge for two bob and a candy apple in she could get press.

Reese Witherspoon is a mother of two young children who wakes up every day knowing there is a number of strange vans and cars parked across the street from her house, who has to worry about the strange men following her and who must feel like a stalked animal.

I happened to be at a business lunch one day at The Ivy on Robertson when the Lindsay Lohan parade came to town. When she and her friend left, the press went after her at 50 mph. It's a wonder that Lindsay has only hit one person on that street. She may be asking for it, but it's still a nuisance and a danger.

The same on Sunset after dark. It's just got to be toned down.

[Guillermo Ugarte]

Posted: 3/24/09 at 2:30pm

I doubt anyone was surprised to learn that the photographers showed up at the funeral and that pictures of Redgrave and Neeson were taken in the cemetery during a very private moment. Anything for a buck.

A family asks for privacy during these painful moments, but it is ignored in the name of celebrity. When the tabloids began to pay big bucks to get that get-it-at-all-costs picture they created a monstrous situation and one which many mercenary photogs were happy to accept. I won't be surprised to see pictures of the autopsy in the tabloids.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 3/24/09 at 10:54pm

It has always been a fantasy of mine to get the names and address's of these Photo/Pornos and persue their families relentlessly- Hey Yr Dad/Husband/Son is an internationally famous person- right ? So TOTally the publics right to know.
As for publication- Hey that's what the interweb is for.

But in the absence of that coming true I'd like to curse them all: dumb, halt, lame, w shingles, in an open boat, at sea with a storm coming in!