The Rise of the 'Citizen Paparazzi' – WSJ.com

Increasingly, nonprofessionals are positioning themselves alongside press photographers, said Brian Ach, a full-time freelancer for celebrity-photo agency WireImage, which is also owned by Getty. “It becomes difficult when there are marked spots for traditional agencies at an event, and somebody with a little point-and-shoot shows up and says, ‘Well, I’m with so-and-so Web site,” he said. “It happens at every single event.”

Another professional photographer, Nancy Kaszerman, said shooting celebrities on the street means “fighting off the cellphones.” At a recent Hotel Gansevoort party in New York, so many “TMZ-type” paparazzi crowded Ms. Jolie that she couldn’t pose for a picture, Ms. Kaszerman said. “They were basically on top of her. They didn’t use their lenses or their zooms,” she said. “In the past, photographers would’ve given her some breathing room.”

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