PAPARAZZI! Ron Galella Exhibition to Open at Liss Gallery in Toronto
The Toronto show features rare prints of Jackie Kennedy, John Lennon, Mick Jagger and other cultural icons.
Liss Gallery in Toronto has opened PAPARAZZI!, an exhibition of hand printed and hand signed works by photographer Ron Galella, running through September 19 at the gallery's location at 112 Cumberland St. Known as the Godfather of American paparazzi culture, Galella spent nearly six decades photographing some of the most recognizable figures in film, music, fashion, sport, and politics, and the Toronto exhibition presents that body of work for local audiences and collectors.
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.
The exhibition includes prints of subjects such as Jack Nicholson, Sylvester Stallone, John Lennon, Cher, Kate Moss, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Grace Jones, Michael Jackson, and Madonna, along with Galella's widely known image Windblown Jackie. Galella's photographs are held in the permanent collections of institutions including the Museum of Modern Art and the Tate Modern, and his career has also been chronicled in the documentary Smash His Camera.
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