Toronto’s Liss Gallery has welcomed one of the most influential photographers of the twentieth century, with “Paparazzi!” an exhibition of hand printed, hand signed works by Ron Galella now official open until September 19 at 112 Cumberland St, Toronto, ON. Known widely as the Godfather of American paparazzi culture, Galella spent nearly six decades capturing the world’s most recognizable faces in moments of unguarded honesty, and this exhibition offers Toronto audiences a rare chance to experience that body of work in person.
Galella’s archive stands as one of the largest single source collections dedicated to popular culture, spanning film, television, music, fashion, sport, and politics. His career began after service as a United States Air Force photographer during the Korean conflict, followed by formal training in photojournalism at the ArtCenter College of Design in Los Angeles, a foundation that shaped the painterly eye he brought to candid photography. From there, Galella photographed an extraordinary range of subjects, from golden age icons including Audrey Hepburn, Frank Sinatra, and Grace Kelly, through to the defining stars of the sixties and seventies, among them Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, and Al Pacino, and onward into contemporary culture with subjects like Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift.
Two of Galella’s most celebrated images anchor the exhibition’s appeal for collectors and photography enthusiasts alike: Windblown Jackie, named one of the most influential photographs of all time by Time magazine, and his striking image of John Lennon and Mick Jagger bathed in soft, diffused light, understood to be among the last professional photographs taken of the two music icons before Lennon’s death. Both photographs share what Galella considered the essence of his craft, subjects caught completely unrehearsed, spontaneous, and entirely themselves.
That craft was distinct by design. Galella developed a signature shooting style, pre-focussing his camera at six feet and holding it close to his chest, an approach that allowed him to create genuine intimacy with his subjects in public settings where such closeness seemed impossible. Andy Warhol, who named Galella his favourite photographer, once said his own idea of a good picture was one that was in focus and of a famous person doing something unfamous, a description that could just as easily serve as Galella’s own artistic philosophy.
Galella’s influence extended well beyond the frame. He and his wife and longtime business partner Betty Burke Galella built Ron Galella Ltd. into a photo agency that trained and launched the careers of numerous photographers who followed in his footsteps. His prints are held in the permanent collections of institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and San Francisco, the Tate Modern in London, and the Helmut Newton Foundation Museum of Photography in Berlin, while his acclaimed photo art books, among them the award-winning Disco Years, and the Sundance-award winning documentary Smash His Camera, have carried his story to new audiences worldwide.
“Paparazzi!” gives Toronto collectors, photography enthusiasts, and anyone drawn to the glamour of classic Hollywood a rare opportunity to view and acquire original, hand printed and hand signed work from an artist whose images continue to define how the world sees celebrity culture. With prints spanning icons like Jack Nicholson, Sylvester Stallone, John Lennon, Cher, Kate Moss, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Grace Jones, Michael Jackson, and Madonna, the exhibition captures the full breadth of a career that helped invent an entire genre of photography.