Justin Bieber is making headlines again.
In videos circulating across social media and news outlets, Mr. Bieber is shown having what appears to be a heated exchange with a photographer last Thursday outside Soho House in Malibu, Calif.
In the days since, fans have been speculating about his well-being and whether his social media posts, many of which could be read as fairly aggressive, have been a reaction to the incident.
So what happened outside Soho House?
The most widely shared section of the lengthy video shows Mr. Bieber, in a blue hooded sweatshirt, holding a flashlight next to his face, asking the photographer, “It’s not clocking to you that I’m standing on business, is it?”
The phrase “standing on business,” which can mean taking responsibility, but can also mean not backing down, is part of a larger conversation the singer has with what appears to be a group of paparazzi. Over the course of the discussion, he repeatedly expresses concern about how clips of the interaction could be misrepresented.
“You’re provoking me — you’re going to take this video out of context like you always do,” Mr. Bieber says, somewhat muffled by the voices of paparazzi assuring him they will not.
After that exchange, which is kept at a fairly even tone, the interaction becomes more heated. Mr. Bieber, growing increasingly frustrated, fires off numerous expletives and repeatedly asks the paparazzi why they are “trying to provoke” him.
“I’m a real dad, a real husband, a real man,” Mr. Bieber says.
What was going on with the flashlight?
Mr. Bieber was most likely using the flashlight to make it harder for the photographers to get a clear photo of him. That would amount to a decidedly low-tech approach in an age where there are specialty fabrics that can interfere with camera flashes. Other celebrities have tried to thwart the cameras by doing things like covering their face or repeatedly wearing the same outfit to make it harder for the photos to be sold.
Has he responded since the incident?
Maybe.
In a recent Instagram post, which some social media users and fans have speculated is a reaction to the incident, Mr. Bieber posted a paragraph of text, which opened with: “People keep telling me to heal. Don’t you think if I could have fixed myself I would have already?”
Like many of his recent posts, he captioned the statement with a middle-finger emoji.
Representatives for Mr. Bieber did not respond to a request for comment.
Has he had issues with the paparazzi in the past?
As someone who has been famous for a long time, something the photographers in this most recent incident were quick to remind him of, Mr. Bieber has often had run-ins with unwanted and intrusive photography.
In April, he made headlines for clashing with the paparazzi before Coachella, when he was seen in a video posted to TMZ telling the photographers, “You don’t care about people, only money.”
His confrontations with the paparazzi have been documented since his early days of teen stardom.
Why do these confrontations happen?
Mr. Bieber’s reaction was one of many in recent years in which a celebrity has pleaded with photographers to be left alone, which may be a result of a shift in the way paparazzi approach their business.
Ray Murray, an associate professor at Oklahoma State University who has researched the ethics of paparazzi, said that a new style of paparazzi was born in the early 2000s, — one centered on provocation.
“There used to be a saying a lot of the older paparazzi told me that celebrities should never know you took their photo until they see it in a magazine,” Mr. Murray said in an interview. But in the new way, he added, “they’ll run up and they’ll throw water in your face just to get a reaction while their partner is shooting the reaction.”
Part of that, of course, is because those interactions are in such high demand, with the actual photographers often being blamed for work that larger companies assigned them.
“The unfortunate part with paparazzi is that they largely work freelance, almost exclusively, and they end up being scapegoated for a lot of the material that they produce that isn’t because they want to produce it,” said Vanessa Díaz, an associate professor at Loyola Marymount University and author of “Manufacturing Celebrity: How Latino Paparazzi and Women Reporters Build the Hollywood Industrial Complex.” “It’s because the larger media corporations demand it. Paparazzi aren’t creating the economy of paparazzi work.”
Nicole Stock reports on internet culture and other lifestyle news for the Style section of The Times.
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