To say that Ron Galella, the godfather of US paparazzi culture, is obsessed with Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis is an understatement. Galella took literally thousands of candid shots of the legendary style icon from 1968 through 1981, and his photographs remain the most enduring, most beautiful, and most revealing images of her in existence.
In fact, it is widely held that our collective memory of Jackie would be non-existent if it weren’t for Ron Galella, though his body of work did not come by easy means. Galella had to deal with constant hurtles of court battles, restraining orders, and heavy fines, because Jackie put up a grand front of personal privacy. Fashion designer and director Tom Ford was right on the money when he said, “Ironically, the very photographs that Mrs. Onassis resisted were the ones that define her as an icon.”
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