5. PHOTOS AND VIDEOS: MR. PAPARAZZI & THE PRINCE OF VIRAL VIDEOS

NUREYEV AND THE LION'S SHOT

When he left his native Australia in 1987, Darryn Lyons knew he wanted to become a great news photographer in England. But it's not easy to rise through the ranks in that field, unless one is lucky enough to catch the right shot. For him, that shot dates to october 1992, when he captured Nureyev's gaze before his last show in Paris. The picture won him several photography contests and gave him the title of UK Photographer of the year. And it was maybe Nureyev's fearful gaze, expressing his own frailty, to prompt Lyons to a change that proved to be successful: taking pictures of celebrities without their permission. Many people consider paparazzi to be vultures, but Lyons counters by saying that the relation between paparazzi and celebrities is one of love and hate: they need each other to survive. And the economic implications of this turn surely proved he made a good choice. After his first weekend as a paparazzi, Lyons sold his pictures to 3 newspapers and earned 30 thousand pounds. Since then, he never turned back.

Video: Interview to Darryn Lyons by startyourouwnbusinessmag (4 minutes)

PAPARAZZI FOR A DAY

On the very same year, 1992, Lyons believed so much in the path he chose that he established Big Pictures, a photo agency that is still world leader in the celebrity department. Having already earned millions of pounds, Lyons has now decided to hire also his readers as part-time paparazzi. Lyons promises to pay lots of money for pictures, videos and news about celebrities. If you ever happen to stumble upon George Clooney at the supermarket, you know who to send the picture to.

Video: Celebrity Lunch First Show by Mr. Paparazzi (4 minutes)

VIRAL ATTACK

It is wrong to believe that watching videos on YouTube could shatter one's career. So it would be in the case of Ray William Johnson, at least. As a Law student at Columbia University he used to waste lots of time watching viral videos and videobloggers on the internet. This is how he thought about putting together videos and comments, giving birth to Equals Three (=3), his online 'show' commenting the most watched videos of the net. Opened in 2009, his channel became one of the most followed ones within a year and now, in 2011, it broke every record on YouTube with its 4,7 million followers and more than one billion visits.

Video: Ray William Johnson's first =3 video (5 minutes)