“Jackie [Onassis] might have hated him. (Ron is convinced it was a love-hate relationship.) But it’s clear that many of his subjects recognized that the guy made them look really good. Because he’s an artist and a realist. Anybody can be made to look good in the studio, but Galella made them look good on the street and on the run. And he may have been a real pest at times, but I suspect a person of Jackie’s taste must have recognized that he did take some very flattering pictures of her.”
Glenn O’Brien, The Photographs of Ron Galella, 1965-1989
Glenn O’Brien, The Photographs of Ron Galella, 1965-1989
 Ron Galella, St. Bernard's School Horse Show |  Jacqueline Kennedy and Her Son, John, Jr., at the St. Bernard's Horse Show; Photograph by Ron Galella |
There is no getting around it. Ron Galella stalked his number one prey (and source of income), Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. He went so far as to date one of her maids so as to have an inside track on her social engagements. In his book, Jacqueline, Galella boasted that his line in the sand would be breaking and entering into her 1040 Fifth Avenue apartment (as if that was a virtue for which he should be applauded).
And yet ... the two were co-conspirators when it came to her legend. He claims to have selected only flattering photographs of Onassis, and either he was telling the truth, or she was the most photogenic woman of her generation (and perhaps she was). In any case, without his candid snapshots, the record of her most incandescent and fascinating years would be incomplete. No one captured the former first lady's natural beauty like Ron Galella. There might have been more talented photographers but certainly no one with his audacity, his shamelessness. The result was something utterly unique. Da Vinci might have had his Mona Lisa, but Galella, his Jacqueline.
The most comprehensive and elegantly produced book of Ron Galella's work is Greybull Press's The Photographs of Ron Galella, 1965-1989. The copy he affectionately inscribed to Elizabeth Taylor is available via the Nick Harvill Libraries store. It is the only one of four books from Taylor's library that we acquired that has not yet sold. Elizabeth Taylor, by the way, was after Jackie, Galella's most bankable celebrity.
And yet ... the two were co-conspirators when it came to her legend. He claims to have selected only flattering photographs of Onassis, and either he was telling the truth, or she was the most photogenic woman of her generation (and perhaps she was). In any case, without his candid snapshots, the record of her most incandescent and fascinating years would be incomplete. No one captured the former first lady's natural beauty like Ron Galella. There might have been more talented photographers but certainly no one with his audacity, his shamelessness. The result was something utterly unique. Da Vinci might have had his Mona Lisa, but Galella, his Jacqueline.
The most comprehensive and elegantly produced book of Ron Galella's work is Greybull Press's The Photographs of Ron Galella, 1965-1989. The copy he affectionately inscribed to Elizabeth Taylor is available via the Nick Harvill Libraries store. It is the only one of four books from Taylor's library that we acquired that has not yet sold. Elizabeth Taylor, by the way, was after Jackie, Galella's most bankable celebrity.
Image Credit: Jacqueline
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