thumb|The differences between a paparazzo and a press photographer are increasingly difficult to distinguish, as the lines between hard news and infotainment become blurred. Red carpet events such as the Tribeca Film Festival, above, are covered by both the paparazzi and press photographers. Paparazzi is a plural term (paparazzo being the Italian singular form) for photographers who take unstaged and/or candid photographs of celebrities caught unaware. Paparazzi take photos of celebrities at moments when the subjects do not expect to be photographed, such as when they shop, walk through a city, eat at a restaurant or swim or lay on the beach. This contrasts with press photography, or photojournalism, that is undertaken at press conferences, red carpet affairs and other events where there is an expectation and desire that the subjects will be photographed. Paparazzi tend to be independent contractors unaffiliated with a mainstream media organization.Is Everyone a Journalist?, Tony Sonenshine, American Journalism Review, October 1997. As the lines between celebrity news and hard news become blurred by the major news agencies, the differences between a paparazzo and photojournalist are increasingly difficult to distinguish.

Etymology

The word paparazzi is an eponym originating in the 1960 film La dolce vita directed by Federico Fellini. One of the characters in the film is a news photographer named Paparazzo (played by Walter Santesso). In his book Word and Phrase Origins, Robert Hendrickson writes that Fellini took the name from an Italian dialect that describes a particularly annoying noise, that of a buzzing mosquito. In his school days, Fellini remembered a boy who was nicknamed "Paparazzo" (Mosquito), because of his fast talking and constant blurs (unknown), a name Fellini later applied to the fictional character in La dolce vita. This version of the word's origin has been strongly contested.Fact: date=July 2008 For example, in an interview with Fellini's screenwriter Ennio Flaiano, he said the name came from a southern Italy travel narrative by Victorian writer George Gissing, "By the Ionian Sea." The book, published in 1901, gives the name of a hotel proprietor, Signor Paparazzo. He further states that either Fellini or Flaiano opened the book at random, saw the name, and decided to use it for the photographer. This story is documented by a variety of Gissing scholars and in the book "A Sweet and Glorious Land: Revisiting the Ionian Sea" (St. Martin's Press, 2000) by John Keahey.

Restrictions

Due to the reputation of paparazzi as a nuisance, some states and countries (particularly within Europe) restrict their activities by passing laws and curfews, and by staging events in which paparazzi are specifically allowed to take photographs. In Norway, Germany and France, photographers need the permission of the people in their photographs in order for them to be released (see model release).Fact: date=November 2008