The paparazzi always seem to be in the right place at the right time. Many may even get jealous because of the amount of time they have seen their favorite celebrity, but, have you ever wondered what it’s actually like being the infamous paparazzi or what it may take to get into the profession? Well, we might just be able to tell you from our interview with Justin from @stupidfamous on twitter , who helped to get a lot of the pictures and videos that Directioners were freaking out over while the boys were in New York.
First, let’s see what it was like to see fans from an outsiders point of view. All can agree that the amount of Directioners in NYC were insane, and so were their actions, which could have lead to even more hurt fans and even put the boys in danger.
“Pretty insane, I’d say borderline dangerous, “ said Justin. “Maybe that explains all the new bodyguards? There’s a crazy crowd mentality that happens when you get 200 teenage girls who are all completely obsessed with the same thing. And when that thing (in this case, the 1D) appears in front of them suddenly, you can expect complete chaos. And that’s what has happened about 90% of the time. You can see it in our videos, but even then you won’t understand what it really feels like when hundreds of people are running through the streets screaming at the top of their lungs. “
Regardless of the chaos, focusing on One Direction for a few days definitely has its perks.
“Working on someone like One Direction is a really fun break from our usual work. Fact is, chasing around 5 boys with massive success and having over 2 million people loving the videos we post online is a pretty cool thing to have happen. When I started doing this stuff, I was a kid around the same age as them, running around New York City and discovering the craziness of it all. So when I see them shooting nerf guns in Times Square, I can relate to that completely,” said Justin.
Along with tips on how it is to be inside the crowd, we also got a few tips on how to meet the boys. The main point, don’t give up hope.
“Try, try, try, and keep trying,” said Justin. “A friend of ours has 5 photos with Harry Styles, know why? Because she tries to see him any chance she can. I asked her last week if she ever skipped school to meet them, and she said “only once.” — so it can be done without pissing off your parents, too.”
Have you seemed to acquire a niche for celebrities and want to know how someone like Justin got into the paparazzi business? He also told us how he personally became a paparazzi and what made him want to do so.
“ ‘I was a paparazzi before I ever had a camera.’ Those were my exact words when I setup a meeting with a top photo agency and asked them to buy me a camera and let me shoot for them. And it was the truth, too,” said Justin. “When I was a kid, I started collecting autographs, and eventually started getting autographs as a profession, getting and selling them online. After awhile it became boring, and I became tired of asking celebrities permission to make money. “Can you sign this?” turned into hiding in a car and taking pictures through a tinted window. Why ask when you can take? And it’s a lot more interesting to document history with images and videos than it is to receive a scribbled name on a piece of paper. So that’s that. Who do I snap next? I ask myself every day.”
What do people like Justin do when they are not chasing the world’s biggest boy band around the city you ask?
“Another day, another dollar,” said Justin. “Most of the time the city is slow and it’s the same boring celebrities wandering around the streets. Sarah Jessica Parker, Katie Holmes, crap like that. My favorite celebrities to shoot are the ones who hide, run, and make it difficult. Someone like Blake Lively or Scarlett Johansson or Leonardo DiCaprio. When you’re trying to take pictures of someone that does everything possible to avoid having it happen, it’s that much more rewarding when you win. Ever have Leonardo DiCaprio give you the finger? It’s pretty funny. “
We now know though, that the next time our boys are in the big apple, we have paparazzi on our side to give us pictures, and videos, especially those at stupidfamouspeople.com.
“Would we do it again? Abso-fucking-lutely. We’ll be making videos of 1D for as long as Directioners want us to,” said Justin.
You can check out the stories on the boys time in NYC and many more at www.youtube.com/user/stupidfamouspeople and http://www.facebook.com/stupidfamouspeople . You can also follow them on twitter @stupidfamouspeople and don’t forget to follow us! @official1DUS.
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