Being photographed by the paparazzi was once an (often dubious) honour bestowed only on the rich and famous, but today a new service is bringing the possibility to every consumer.
Upon request, New York City-based MethodIzaz will send an anonymous photographer to surreptitiously capture select moments in a consumer's life and immortalize them with a portfolio of professionally produced photos. To arrange the service, the consumer provides a self photograph ahead of time along with details of their schedule and any specific emotion, mood or theme they hope to capture. MethodIzaz's photographer will then show up at some undisclosed point during the day and photograph the subject walking through the streets or going about their daily business, without posing or artifice. For customers, the final result is a new perspective on how they appear to others as well as tangible documentation of how they lived their lives at that point in time—in short, the ultimate in gravanity-stroking. Pricing is based on MethodIzaz's time to travel, photograph, edit and produce the photographs, ranging from USD 300 to USD 400 per hour.
Founded late last year, MethodIzaz already accepts assignments worldwide, but it also hopes to expand its presence accordingly. There are consumers around the globe waiting for their taste of fame and immortality—one to partner with and bring to an area near you?
Website: www.methodizaz.com
Spotted by: Giulia Cuccolini
What a fantastic idea. I can really see why they offer it in New York versus other locations, there are many people that would want photos of them walking around that city. I am thinking Los Angeles may also have a large enough market.
I think it's a tragic sign of the times, when someone actively hires a paparazzi to follow them at $400 an hour. Really, really sad.
I agree with Serge, this is a brilliant idea. I blogged about MethodIzaz a month ago and fell in love with the idea. It's not about 'hiring' paparazzi, its about hiring a professional photographer to capture candid moments, which are in my opinion the most genuine photographs. Imagine the body of work that could be produced from a family vacation. Ahh, if only I had the money.
Lauren, it says something about your psyche if you'd want someone following you around taking photos of you ON vacation, as opposed to taking photos of the surroundings. Perhaps I'm just too humble(!), but even if this were free, I'd still balk at the idea. Just how candid can a moment be if there's always a thought at the back of your mind that Mr-$400-Paparazzi could be shooting you? Only for the super vain.
this is the worst idea ever. only the most vain and stupidly wealthy people would even consider this a good idea, the very same people who are ruining our world with their vain, consumption driven bullshit lifestyles
you will always find someone, who is willing to pay for this. As you said, Jared, it is for vain people (not really the super vain, but the very vain ones :)
If you look around, you see that people live in a superficial world of show off and image. For the same reason, people have sculptures of gold of themselves, paintings worth thousands of dollars etc etc.
And tbh, I don't think that this idea is a bad one. If you look around, you can see that everyone makes pictures of themselves in various situations. You also hire photographs for events like weddings and ceremonies, so why not also for daily activities. I think, the most expressive pictures are the ones taken in daily life and in situations, where no one expects to have a picture been taken (of course in this case the people do know that someone is taking a picture, but they do not know WHEN it will be).
The only problem I see here is the price, but since this is a quite innovative idea and there is a market for this, I think it is appropriate. But in the future it will be most likely much cheaper.
My friend sent me the link to this article and idea of a personal photographer capturing your candid moments. She thinks I would be perfect for this kind of job. Many of my 8,000 photos of the Sunshine Coast, Canada posted on my website www.duaneburnett.com are candid portraits of our community which make The Local news paper every week and they are shown on the giant movie screen before the show starts. Great idea. Duane www.duaneburnett.com (sorry if this got posted a couple times, it kept stalling out)
Duane, loving the self-promotion. The irony is brilliant.