Reviews
Mr. Mickey's look of the month is a plethora of old-school paparazzi shots by the master photographer Ron Galella from his new book, Ron Galella New York (Damiani/Row NYC), Reflecting upon his decades of work, Ron Galella, the godfather of American paparazzi photography, remarks, "New York became my studio." Gallella's photos - taken from the windows of moving taxis, behind lampposts on Fifth Avenue, in Studio 54 - captured the likes of De Niro, Nicholson, Jagger, Bowie, and the rest of New York's Me Decade luminaries, each of them unguarded, unposed, and often unhappy about it. These shots, collected in Ron Galella: New York, once filled tabloids; they now fill galleries as beautifull artifacts from a glitzier, grittier New York., Galella spends his day poring over his vast archives searching for some picture he overlooked, some gem buried in his contacts. "Mining the gold in my files," as he says. Interest in all his pictures from back when he was still the undefeated don of the paparazzi - of Jackie, Liz and Brando - keeps him in circulation in fine art galleries around the world. An 8-by-10 print might easily fetch $2,500, and he distributes scores of them to galleries daily.Galella was speaking from the home he's shared with his wife Betty for more than two decades. It is covered top to bottom in pictures - a Jackie over the fireplace, a Liz by the staircase, an Andy Warhol etched onto the back of a chair - and fistfuls of porcelain rabbits - his and Betty's favorite animal. Boxes of film are scattered all over the place - "Mick Jagger Alone," "Elvis Presley with others." The negatives of his most famous pictures - "Windblown Jackie" and a shot of Galella in a football helmet trailing Marlon Brando - are also here, stored away in a safe. He's on a couch, with all his books displayed in front of him, flipping through the pages of "New York," the new book from Damiani and Row NYC that features images extending from 1968 to 1992, all the way from Warhol's prime to his memorial service luncheon.There's Warhol and Keith Haring at Tunnel in 1986. "Andy liked me a lot, I think, because we liked the same celebrities and because I had the chutzpah and he was shy and he didn't get the pictures I got," he says. "We had the same social disease. We want to be everywhere and we want to cover everything.", Reflecting upon his decades of work, Ron Galella, the godfather of American paparazzi photography, remarks, "New York became my studio." Gallella's photos - taken from the windows of moving taxis, behind lampposts on Fifth Avenue, in Studio 54- captured the likes of De Niro, Nicholson, Jagger, Bowie, and the rest of New York's Me Decade luminaries, each of them unguarded, unposed, and often unhappy about it. These shots, collected in Ron Galella: New York, once filled tabloids; they now fill galleries as beautifull artifacts from a glitzier, grittier New York., Galella spends his day poring over his vast archives searching for some picture he overlooked, some gem buried in his contacts. "Mining the gold in my files," as he says. Interest in all his pictures from back when he was still the undefeated don of the paparazzi -- of Jackie, Liz and Brando -- keeps him in circulation in fine art galleries around the world. An 8-by-10 print might easily fetch $2,500, and he distributes scores of them to galleries daily.Galella was speaking from the home he's shared with his wife Betty for more than two decades. It is covered top to bottom in pictures -- a Jackie over the fireplace, a Liz by the staircase, an Andy Warhol etched onto the back of a chair -- and fistfuls of porcelain rabbits -- his and Betty's favorite animal. Boxes of film are scattered all over the place -- "Mick Jagger Alone," "Elvis Presley with others." The negatives of his most famous pictures -- "Windblown Jackie" and a shot of Galella in a football helmet trailing Marlon Brando -- are also here, stored away in a safe. He's on a couch, with all his books displayed in front of him, flipping through the pages of "New York," the new book from Damiani and Row NYC that features images extending from 1968 to 1992, all the way from Warhol's prime to his memorial service luncheon.There's Warhol and Keith Haring at Tunnel in 1986. "Andy liked me a lot, I think, because we liked the same celebrities and because I had the chutzpah and he was shy and he didn't get the pictures I got," he says. "We had the same social disease. We want to be everywhere and we want to cover everything.", A testament to the city that everyone loves to hate but always comes back to, eventually. Galella captures the then-famous and our still-famous traveling into, out of, and within the Big Apple., Alongside a number of never-seen-before photographs, the sensational book also boasts an exclusive interview with the legendary paparazzo, revealing previously untold stories behind some of his most iconic images.
