Tazio Secchiaroli
Anthony Steel and Anita Ekberg on Via Veneto, Rome

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Artist Tazio Secchiaroli(Italian, 1925–1998)Italian, 1925–1998

CultureItalian

Titles

Anthony Steel and Anita Ekberg on Via Veneto, Rome

Date1958

PlaceRome, Italy

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 9 3/8 × 7 1/8 in. (23.8 × 18.1 cm)
Sheet: 9 3/8 × 7 1/8 in. (23.8 × 18.1 cm)

Credit LineThe Carla and Lorenzo Borlenghi Collection of Italian Photographs, museum purchase funded by the Director's Accessions Endowment as a matching gift to donations of Ermy Borlenghi and Gordon Bonfield and Cathy and Giorgio Borlenghi

Object number2000.22.4

Not on view

Explore Further

Department

Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionFederico Fellini, who featured a photographer named Paparazzo in his film La Dolce Vita (1960), explained that the word “paparazzo” suggested “a buzzing insect, hovering, buzzing, stinging.” Since then, the term paparazzo (the singular form for the more commonly used paparazzi) has been used to identify photographers who make their livings following celebrities to capture them unposed and often in unflattering moments. Tazio Secchiaroli was one of the most famous paparazzi of the 1950s, when Rome was the popular destination for the world’s glamorous, famous, and infamous. This photograph is one in a series (2000.22.1-.4) where Secchiaroli snaps as he backs down the sidewalk moving away from a charging and angry Anthony Steel. Originally published in newspapers and magazines, this is the type of image that would today appear on Twitter.
ProvenanceGaleria Photology; MFAH
Exhibition History“Made for Magazines: Iconic 20th-Century Photographs,” The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, February 9–May 4, 2014.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

The photograph is inscribed, verso, upper edge: "SEC288SUU"
and at lower left: "#4"

The photograph is signed in black, verso, lower center

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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