Photography in the News

Sure, we've seen this basic People Paparazzi story before. Several times before.

But this time it's in the Wall Street Journal, so now it can be considered a business model, and WSJ readers will spend their long, long lunches pondering how to make it into a synergistic monetization initiative with a cute name and flashy Web presence.

The Rise of the 'Citizen Paparazzi'

'As it turned out, she got even more contact with her favorite singer than she expected: Mr. Mayer, hamming it up for fellow passengers, donned a neon green thong-style swimsuit as Ms. Horgan and others furiously snapped photographs. In a blog post after returning home, Ms. Horgan joked that she was going to send the pictures to celebrity magazine Us Weekly.

'She didn't have to. Within days, Ms. Horgan heard not only from Us Weekly, but also from MTV, VH1, Rolling Stone, Blender and Newsweek. She ended up selling photos to Newsweek and VH1 – she says she was offered "a couple hundred" for each photo, but declines to be more specific.'

Of course, I have no idea what will happen when the WSJ reports their version of this story:

UCF Police Warn Of Backside Photographer

"Investigators want University of Central Florida students to be on the lookout for an illicit photographer. A student told police he saw videos online of women's backsides as they walked around campus. He recognized some campus landmarks in the shots."

I'm afraid to think what businesses might be launched the next day.

One question on the "Backside Photographer" story: can that student really be sure they were all women? Perhaps one of them was wearing something neon green on his way to give a concert on campus?