paperatzi

Italian American slang. For a photographic investigator whose actions are for the public good. Unlike the similarly named Paparazzi (Paparazza). A Paperatzi takes pictures to draw attention to something.

I was in New York city from 2004 - 2005 studying up in Danbury CT. I was in New York City in the early spring and I took a random picture of of some garbage bags that had a City of New York, tag on them explaining why they couldn't take the garbage. In the opened bags I could see contaminated paper products. The paper appeared contaminated with food residue and as an environmentally aware person I knew it couldn't be recycled. So for the ironic situation I took some pictures of the garbage bags and was caught and yelled at. By who i thought was the owner, 40 / 50 year old gentleman, smaller than me at 5'8" and as large as myself.

He yelled out "hey Paperatzi, get away from my trash...".

I wasn't sure what he meant and so I put my camera away. I was using a minalta SLR camera. A older kind of camera and not digital, but it was the professional kind, with a power loader, the kind the paparazza use to take pictures of celebrities.

So I aproached the gentleman and apoligised. Because I have a very good knowlage about the enviroment and recycling options from many decades of interest and activity.

So we got talking and I asked what he meant by a paperatzi. And he explained. Above is the easies way of explaining it. I herd it a good few more times during my studies and each time it was known for the above situation.