0:00

I see we all naked eye. I gotta

0:02

cut the cord and fall away. An instinct

0:04

I can justify. And

0:08

on please. Duann has the whole story. What did

0:10

Duann say about it? Do you hear what Dumois

0:12

said? Dumois, who is it? Can you believe this

0:14

blind item was on that story a long time

0:16

ago? Sunday means celeb sightings with Dumois. I

0:19

cannot believe what I just read about on Dumois.

0:21

I need to hear more. Hello

0:23

and welcome to Do You, the

0:25

show where you'll hear all the

0:27

latest in celeb gossip and special

0:29

exclusives that are not shared on

0:31

my Instagram or anywhere else. I'll

0:33

be your guide into the world

0:35

of celeb news, sightings, and secrets.

0:38

I will be giving you all of

0:40

the information I have on your favorite

0:42

topics every week. This

0:44

week we're talking with return guest

0:46

Alex, one of the

0:48

previous owners of the number one

0:50

celebrity news and photo agency Backred.

0:52

We're getting into celebrity paparazzi walks,

0:55

call-ins, photo exclusives, fan

0:58

accounts, bidding, and so much more.

1:00

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2:48

Hi everyone. Welcome back to another episode

2:50

of the podcast. This week

2:52

we're doing it a little bit differently. We're actually

2:54

off this week, so we're prerecording this

2:57

episode last week. It'll

3:00

be last week by the time you listen to

3:02

it. Ferris is not here with

3:04

us today, but I have a special

3:06

guest, a returning guest, someone who we

3:09

had on the podcast back in 2022,

3:11

and I thought that

3:13

it was time for him to

3:15

come back on and give everyone

3:18

a little refresher course in the

3:20

business of paparazzi. Please

3:22

welcome Alex, who is one

3:24

of the previous owners of

3:27

the number one celebrity news and

3:29

photo agency, Backgrid. Hi

3:31

Alex. Hi. Thanks

3:34

for having me. Thanks for being

3:36

here. Do you want to explain why

3:38

you're a previous owner? Because you're still

3:40

involved in Backgrid. Backgrid is still

3:42

very much a viable

3:45

business. You were

3:47

one of the original founders, previous

3:49

owner. Why

3:52

am I saying previous? Just tell everyone. Because

3:55

on February 1st, 2024, on February 1st,

3:57

2024, Bagrid

4:00

was acquired by Shutterstock, which

4:04

is one of the leading creative

4:07

marketplace for, let's

4:09

say, high-quality, free

4:11

photographs, vectors, illustrations, videos,

4:14

motion graphics, and music. We

4:19

were acquired in February and now,

4:21

I mean, I still work for

4:23

Bagrid. I'm the director

4:26

of Candid Content for Shutterstock

4:28

now. Okay. Shutterstock

4:31

did have a department

4:35

that was capturing paparazzi like

4:37

photos. It was Splash, correct?

4:40

Yes. They had acquired Splash News, I

4:43

think, about three years ago. Okay.

4:46

They had their called Shutterstock News

4:48

too, that they were called Candid,

4:53

but they were covering some

4:55

paparazzi content at the time too. Then

4:58

they acquired Splash and two months

5:00

ago, they acquired us. Okay.

5:03

Last time we spoke two years ago, almost

5:05

two years ago, we

5:07

talked about everyone's

5:09

misconception over

5:11

what Bagrid is. Because

5:14

the name Bagrid somehow,

5:17

and correct me if I'm wrong, I think

5:19

it happened during quarantine when TikTok

5:22

started booming and everyone

5:25

started reporting on celebrity news. It

5:27

became synonymous with setup shots and

5:30

a place where if

5:32

you saw the name Bagrid credited to

5:34

a photo, it meant that a

5:37

celebrity had set the shots up,

5:39

contacted the paparazzi, and

5:42

in some cases, people claimed

5:44

they essentially paid for those photos to be

5:46

taken. I'm going to play for you a

5:48

TikTok from around that time, just to refresh

5:50

your memory. I don't know if you go

5:53

on TikTok. Do you go on TikTok and

5:55

hear what everyone's saying about Bagrid or no?

5:57

Are you aware? I

6:00

am aware, but not really. I don't go on

6:02

TikTok in here like everyone

6:04

is saying about us, but I'm

6:06

aware, yeah. Here's one of several

6:08

TikToks. Joe Jonas, this is a

6:10

call from TikTok for you to

6:12

fire your publicist. Joe Jonas was

6:14

conveniently spotted eating breakfast with his

6:16

two daughters, and I'm gonna show

6:18

you proof that allegedly, this is

6:20

staged. Look in the corner of

6:22

this photo. Who took this photo?

6:25

Backgrid. Backgrid is notorious for staging

6:27

paparazzi photos for moments that are

6:29

complimentary to celebrities. I'm officially convinced

6:31

that Joe Jonas' team is not

6:33

on TikTok at all and is

6:35

running out of the 80s because

6:37

everyone on social media knows that

6:39

Backgrid does this, allegedly. The Tumblr

6:41

chain honestly sums up how Backgrid

6:43

works really well. Allegedly, a client

6:45

will contact them with the photo

6:47

locations and details named. So the

6:49

TikTok I just played was from

6:51

a creator on TikTok named Cora

6:53

Breelene, and she goes on

6:55

to show a screenshot from

6:58

Tumblr of someone

7:00

who is very confidently describing

7:03

your business. So let me read to

7:05

you what this person is saying and

7:09

you could tell me your thoughts. They are

7:11

claiming that a client

7:14

contacts Backgrid with the photo

7:16

location and details, the job goes down, and then

7:18

the paparazzi pictures are

7:22

sent to the client's publicist. The

7:24

celebrity picks the photos they want and

7:26

then the PR sends them off to

7:30

the desired media outlets, example

7:32

Us Weekly, et cetera. There

7:35

are other agencies that exist

7:37

that provide the same service. There's

7:40

a good chance photos are staged even if a

7:42

different agency is listed. It's

7:44

rare to get an unplanned, great quality pap

7:49

pictures nowadays. What do

7:51

you have to say about that? What do you

7:53

have to say about that? That's not true. I

7:55

can tell, look, it does happen. We

7:59

get calls. sometimes but I

8:03

would say 98% of

8:05

the content that we put

8:08

out, they are captured

8:10

literally paparazzi style. No

8:13

setups, no one called. Our

8:19

freelance contributor, the paparazzi that

8:22

addresses us with their work,

8:26

got information that so and so person were

8:28

at this place at this moment, got a

8:31

call when they are in shot the pics.

8:34

That's pretty much how it happens like 90% of

8:37

the time. And yes, 2% I'm

8:40

not gonna lie, like the company

8:42

gets calls and work

8:44

out with publicist and celebs

8:47

to set up some

8:50

shots. But the

8:52

distribution is strongly

8:54

addressed to the company. Now, not

8:57

a PR company or publicist

8:59

distributes the image to

9:01

the clients. Right. So

9:04

that's what I was gonna ask you. This

9:06

part, let's clear this up once and

9:08

for all. The job goes down and

9:10

then the paparazzi pictures are sent to

9:12

the client's publicist. Does that ever happen?

9:14

That does happen. That does

9:16

happen. Usually it's a job

9:18

that has a brand

9:20

involved. It's a celebrity

9:23

and let's say they were in

9:25

Gucci. So yeah, it does happen. Then we have

9:27

to send out to

9:29

send the publicist together approvals and then we send the

9:31

pictures out. But again, I

9:34

wish we would have more of those jobs.

9:38

But no, it's my

9:40

God. Every like 1000 set

9:43

of images that

9:45

we put out, maybe one set of

9:47

images at each stage. Right. And

9:50

I think people need to realize this. I think

9:52

that you made a very, very important point that

9:55

as a client of Backgrad, I'm a client.

9:58

Now I could go on your website and

10:00

see all the images

10:03

that are captured in a week's time.

10:05

There are so many sets of images

10:07

that never see the light of day.

10:11

So when you're saying 1% of those images

10:14

could potentially be staged, that's

10:18

a very small percentage considering

10:20

how many images your

10:22

agency is acquiring in a weekly basis.

10:26

Yeah, our agency is syndicating

10:28

on a weekly basis. Yeah,

10:31

I can tell you, look, it's July 17th. This

10:34

month we didn't have one single, let's

10:37

call it a staged. Oh,

10:39

okay. So in the whole month of

10:41

July so far, you

10:43

have not had any, we'll

10:46

call them for lack of a

10:48

better word, PR setup shots. That's

10:50

what you're saying? Correct. Yes. Okay. I

10:53

was actually gonna ask you about some

10:55

specific sets of pictures that

10:57

I posted, but that

11:00

should clear up a lot of

11:02

people's questions about

11:06

certain celebrities. Now let me ask you, I

11:08

think this goes without saying, but if you

11:11

are working with a publicist or with a

11:13

celebrity, they do get to choose

11:16

which pictures they want released,

11:18

but only in those instances,

11:20

correct? Yes, of course.

11:23

Let me point something out to you. They

11:26

get to choose, but they don't get

11:28

to edit the images. They don't get to Photoshop. It's

11:30

the way that we shot it. They don't like it

11:32

and that's it, like too bad. We

11:34

don't put the pictures out, but yeah, they

11:36

get to choose the best, what

11:39

they deem to be the best images. So

11:41

how often does that happen where

11:44

they choose the best images, they're

11:47

not Photoshopped, they don't

11:49

like them, but they're still released? Very

11:51

often. I mean, our guys are

11:54

pretty good photographers, so it's

11:58

very hard for us to do a set. that

12:00

up and the client

12:02

comes back to us and saying that they

12:05

did not like the image and so not

12:08

sending anything out. I don't think the other

12:10

happened to be honest. Okay, that's interesting. They

12:12

don't get like get pissed at you. You

12:14

don't get like a nasty call from like

12:17

Christian or like, the girls

12:19

don't look good and these pictures take

12:21

them down. You're saying like that doesn't

12:23

happen. No, that doesn't happen. And

12:26

I think it's also you said it very quickly, but

12:28

it's also very important

12:30

to note you don't Photoshop pictures and

12:32

I talked about this a couple

12:36

podcast episodes ago, specifically with

12:39

the Britney Spears set of pictures of

12:41

her coming back from

12:43

Mexico, getting off the plane and into her

12:45

car. And I had told

12:48

my audience that I had

12:50

asked you like, you

12:53

know, as a fan of Britney,

12:55

can you Photoshop these pictures? Because

12:57

I know she's gonna get really

12:59

pissed once they're released. And

13:01

you said absolutely not like we don't

13:04

Photoshop pictures. 100%

13:07

Yes, that's correct. That is a that's

13:10

called a code of conduct on

13:13

the editorial business that doesn't allow

13:15

us to to

13:17

Photoshop images. I'm now

13:20

being part of a Shutterstock. I can I

13:22

can even

13:25

accept images, Photoshop

13:28

images to syndicate them. That

13:30

is a very like well

13:32

known case of Kate

13:34

Miroton images that she

13:37

photoshopped those images and send that out

13:39

to several

13:41

media outlets. And

13:44

they took it down because the image was photoshopped.

13:47

My personal opinion, I

13:50

wouldn't take it down. But

13:53

most of the agencies did.

13:56

I mean, she photoshopped she felt that That's

14:00

how she looked good, how the image should go out.

14:03

It is what it is. It's the

14:05

business. She provided those

14:08

images. For me, I would be fine with it.

14:10

But I mean, Shutterstock was

14:12

one of the agents that took

14:14

down the images. And I can't

14:17

say that I agree with

14:19

it, but I do

14:22

understand. Yeah, so that's a good example. So

14:24

for anyone who doesn't know this story, when

14:27

Kate Middleton, I think it was before

14:30

she had announced that she was

14:32

sick, she had put out

14:34

a Mother's Day photo of her and her

14:37

kids. It came from the

14:39

palace. It

14:41

was released, and it was dissected

14:43

by the public. And

14:45

people were very quick to point out

14:47

the inaccuracies in the photo and say

14:50

that it was photoshopped. I

14:52

guess in the end, you're saying that the

14:54

palace admitted that it was photoshopped. I

14:56

think she admitted it. And

14:58

because she admitted it, you're saying

15:00

that publications took down the photo.

15:03

Before she admitted it, there are

15:06

ways that we can

15:08

see that the image was photoshopped. There,

15:11

definitely ways. Someone that

15:13

works with the image all day long, as

15:15

soon as a set of images comes in,

15:17

we will know right away. But

15:19

yeah, before she admitted it, the

15:22

agents took down the image and request. Meet out

15:24

the image, take it down as well. When you

15:26

saw the image, were you like, this is totally

15:29

photoshopped? But whatever, it's coming from the palace. They

15:31

put their stamp of approval on it. Is that

15:33

what you thought? Honestly, I

15:35

didn't think there was photoshopped. I didn't even

15:37

pay attention. The image

15:39

came from the palace. I

15:43

would be surprised if they hadn't photoshopped.

15:45

Let's put it this way. OK, so

15:48

speaking of the palace, let me play

15:50

you another TikTok. And this

15:52

specific celebrity also gets accused

15:55

on the regular of calling

15:57

the paparazzi. Let me play you this.

15:59

She did it again. She

16:02

set up another paparazzi walk

16:04

with back grid. Gah!

16:07

Dude, why do you look

16:10

right at the camera when

16:13

you know that they're there? Oh!

16:16

I mean, does she know it's summer,

16:19

you know? Does

16:21

she know that? You're not supposed to wear black

16:24

in summer? OK,

16:28

that's from a creator on TikTok. Their

16:33

handle is 88 underscore

16:35

POV underscore 88. Do

16:37

you know who they're talking about? No

16:39

idea. It's Meghan

16:41

Markle. Oh,

16:44

I wish. Actually, if Meghan wants

16:47

to call us, you know, that

16:49

would be great. But no, she never called us. We

16:53

never talked to her publicist. I

16:55

mean, back a few months ago, we was

16:58

very public. We had an issue with

17:01

Meghan and Priest Harry. But I

17:03

can't tell you, she never called

17:05

us. So

17:08

you're saying that just because,

17:10

and I've heard this from people before, they think that

17:13

just because a subject is

17:15

looking directly into the camera, that means that

17:17

it's a setup shot, because

17:19

they know the photographers are there. That's

17:23

not true, is what you're saying. Look, that's one

17:25

thing knowing that the photographers are there, and that's

17:28

another thing of, and

17:30

that is someone calling us to

17:32

be there. All

17:35

right, so I

17:37

was a paparazzi before. I think when

17:39

a celebrity is a paparazzi like outside,

17:44

they have only two options. One, it's hide

17:46

their face. And the other one is just

17:48

take it as a professional and look good

17:50

to the cameras. And I think,

17:53

but I don't even think, none of

17:55

the time, it's usually like a couple

17:58

of guys that take pictures.

18:00

of of America Marco because she's

18:02

uh because they live in Santa Barbara. So

18:06

these two guys that work with us and

18:09

I think one of them had been your podcast before

18:12

they uh they pretty

18:14

much take pictures of her like all

18:17

the time just because Santa

18:19

Barbara is the area that they they

18:21

work mostly. So they take pictures of

18:23

whoever lives there Katy Perry, Chris Pratt,

18:26

Meghan Markle, Alan the generous

18:29

but they're very professional and they rarely come

18:31

out of their car. So I don't I

18:33

really don't think that she saw them

18:37

and look at the camera. This is literally like

18:39

just I mean we're positioning on

18:41

the on the on

18:45

the right spot and uh and

18:48

they got the images they got they got

18:50

the shot pretty much how you call it

18:52

like yeah they got the shot but no

18:54

she doesn't she doesn't call pretty she doesn't

18:56

call. You're saying you you wish that they

18:58

called. I wish I was about say although

19:00

I would love to get that call you

19:03

do some setup shots. So you're

19:05

saying that she just recognizes

19:07

probably the paparazzi because it's the same

19:09

guys she knows them at this point.

19:15

I don't think she ever saw them to

19:17

be three times with you. So she's just

19:19

looking she's just looking in that direction because

19:21

we're you can't see what I'm looking at

19:23

right now but the person who made the

19:25

video did provide a picture and it does

19:27

look like she's looking directly at the camera

19:29

and I actually saw some pictures on your

19:31

website yesterday of Kit Harrington in London.

19:33

Do you know these uh this set and

19:35

he he's it also looks like he's

19:38

looking directly at the camera too and he

19:41

saw the paparazzi taking his picture and

19:43

I wonder it happens all the time. Absolutely.

19:46

Sometimes it does seem that they look

19:48

at the camera but sometimes they're looking

19:50

at someone else they're looking at I

19:53

don't know they're about to cross the street so

19:56

they're looking at the the traffic down. Yeah yeah

19:58

yeah just just like. how the

20:01

paparazzi like position themselves. And that's

20:04

what makes you a good paparazzi. Is

20:09

if you can't be seen. You

20:11

can be seen and you always position

20:13

yourself on the right spot that they're

20:15

gonna work towards, they're gonna, I don't

20:17

know, yeah, but you know, like, oh,

20:19

the cars parked right on the

20:21

corner, so they have to walk this way. So

20:24

I'm gonna position myself right

20:26

across the street on the opposite way so

20:29

I can, I can literally get them like

20:31

looking straight to me. Oh,

20:34

so you're saying that a look

20:37

towards the camera doesn't necessarily

20:40

indicate they're noticing the paparazzi.

20:42

It indicates that

20:44

the paparazzi is successful and it's a good

20:46

shot. Exactly. Oh,

20:49

that's interesting. Okay. Well, I want to ask,

20:52

my next question is about celebrities who

20:54

cover their faces with masks,

20:57

right? Like we saw

20:59

it obviously a ton during COVID, but

21:01

that's when everyone was required

21:04

to wear masks, but we still see it

21:06

now, particularly Timothy

21:08

Chalamet, Leonardo DiCaprio. I

21:11

see Kylie Jenner doing it now. Why

21:13

do they do this? Look,

21:15

Timothy DiCaprio, I think, I don't

21:18

know, it could be just

21:20

because they feel safer if they had

21:24

an issue with COVID, they have

21:26

a medical issue that we don't know about it, but

21:29

I just think like they're so, I'm

21:31

not gonna say about Kylie because Kylie

21:33

when she's out, she's

21:36

always out with security. So I think

21:40

it would be easy to spot her if you

21:42

are a fan, but like Timothy DiCaprio, I

21:44

think they just want to

21:46

go under the radar and not be

21:48

spotted pretty much. So they use the masks, they use

21:50

the hair. Does it devalue

21:52

the price of the picture? Because

21:54

that's what the audience

21:57

thinks. I've seen that comment several times

21:59

on pictures. pictures that we've posted.

22:01

They think it devalues the

22:03

cost of the picture if a

22:06

celebrity is hiding their face and

22:09

it's like a fuck you to the paparazzi

22:11

that the celebrity is saying you're not going

22:13

to get, you know, money off my image.

22:18

Look, if it's just a regular shot, it

22:23

does really value. I totally agree.

22:25

It does value. I just don't think the slide

22:27

would go that

22:29

far. I don't think they'll be thinking

22:31

like before they come out like, oh, I'm going to pardon

22:35

my language, but I'm going to fuck with the paps

22:37

today and I'm going to wear this mask. I don't

22:39

think that's the case. But

22:41

does the value the image? Yes. I

22:43

think during COVID, if

22:46

I'm not mistaken, one of our agents,

22:52

anyway, I think it was in China. I

22:55

think China banned any image

22:58

of people wearing masks right in

23:01

the beginning. So yeah,

23:03

if you had someone wearing a mask,

23:06

we knew that we wouldn't be

23:09

making or getting any license fees from China.

23:12

Oh, okay. Yeah.

23:15

So 100% devalues the image. Yeah. Someone wearing all

23:17

the masks. I mean,

23:19

much more appealing than someone

23:22

wearing a mask. But

23:24

those specific images of

23:27

Kylie and Timmy, they

23:30

weren't devalued because they were wearing masks, were

23:33

they? Yeah, no, no, they were not. No, because that

23:35

is a story behind. That's why

23:37

I said, like, if it's just a regular image

23:39

of someone coming out of a Starbucks, yeah, it's

23:41

devalued, you know? But

23:43

yeah, Timmy, Tim, Kylie, together, that is

23:46

already like a story

23:48

there. So no, it

23:51

doesn't dej capture

24:01

right now. The hardest celebrities to

24:03

capture right now, honestly. Taylor,

24:06

unless she wants to be seen? Yeah,

24:09

no, Taylor, once she goes to New York,

24:11

it's a fair game. You're going to shoot

24:13

her. Once she's not in New York yet,

24:15

it's kind of hard to get

24:17

her. And

24:20

she doesn't, she spends most of her time in

24:23

Asheville, so when she's not on tour. So it's

24:25

hard to, there are not too many candid

24:29

photographs in Nashville.

24:32

So, but yeah,

24:35

no, I think the

24:37

hardest one when

24:41

he's not promoting anything would be the likes

24:43

of, I mean, Aniston,

24:46

Brad Pitt. Oh,

24:49

Jennifer Aniston? Yeah, Harry

24:51

Styles. It's nice to get

24:54

to. Yeah. But like, there's so

24:56

many pictures of him in Europe. I

24:58

mean, the famous, I mean, most of

25:00

the image of him in Europe, you can see that

25:02

it's actually not from,

25:05

from paparazzis, just like regular people

25:07

taking pictures of him and uploading

25:09

on social media. But

25:11

I feel like you guys had a couple sets of

25:13

him in Italy, in Rome, he

25:15

was shopping. Not lately. Maybe

25:18

last month, maybe last month.

25:20

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

25:23

But that was like a good set. He was

25:25

shopping with his friend and

25:29

he looked annoyed. Like I was wondering if

25:31

he saw the paparazzi or maybe just people were

25:33

just gawking at him in general because

25:35

he's Harry Styles, but he kind

25:37

of looked annoyed in the

25:40

images. Let's talk about

25:42

a couple of sets that I

25:45

posted recently. We represent photographers.

25:48

So most of the people that process

25:51

with that work, they are freelance photographers.

25:54

So meaning like we, they don't

25:56

have a salary to just go out every day

25:59

and they just. that

26:01

is nothing guaranteed. That's what I'm trying to

26:03

say. So whenever, what we know how hard

26:05

is to get these images, how

26:07

expensive is like LA and New York. I

26:10

mean, two cities that's just crazy expensive,

26:12

rent, gas, food.

26:15

So it's very costly to

26:17

get these images that

26:20

we've been syndicating. So what

26:22

happens when we have

26:24

a team of sales reps so

26:30

when we have, when we receive images

26:32

on them, pretty much every

26:36

minute, the image

26:38

they stop in a session of

26:40

our website and

26:42

this let's call sales specialists,

26:44

they look through every single image and they

26:47

try to find an angle. When we see

26:50

that we have something that

26:53

we believe is worth more than the

26:55

ordinary, that's when

26:58

we start contacting clients and asking them

27:00

if they would like to have the

27:03

set of image exclusively to them for

27:05

a certain period of time. Right

27:10

and for price. For

27:12

price of course, yeah, yeah. We

27:15

come with the first offer, what

27:18

happens sometimes is we tell them, look,

27:20

this is literally the opening offer, the

27:22

opening asking, let's call that. And

27:27

sometimes more than one client is

27:30

interested in the set of features so they have to bid

27:32

against each other. Sometimes

27:36

no one is interested and

27:40

it's like pushing hard

27:42

every day, trying

27:45

to show the client the angle and

27:48

of course, depending of

27:51

the client's audience, kind of their followers that

27:53

it's up to them to deem like, okay,

27:59

this is, this is. this will do well for me or

28:01

this is not gonna do well for me. And

28:05

on top of that, I think most of the

28:07

traditional publishers, they haven't found

28:09

a way to monetize

28:14

in social media. And it's

28:16

pretty much where we're going these days. There's

28:18

been a shift from our traditional

28:22

clients, like the

28:24

likes of, let's

28:26

say Daily Mail, people as

28:29

weekly to kind

28:32

of new coming like social

28:36

media publishers. Let's call it

28:39

that. And

28:45

so the competition, I'm trying to say,

28:49

that there are more people now that they

28:52

are interested in this and in

28:56

our image on a pretty much

28:58

like minute by minute basis. So

29:02

I guess I could say I've bid

29:04

against some of your

29:06

other clients for the

29:08

exclusives on pictures.

29:10

And I think that people get confused,

29:13

which is why I wanted you to explain

29:15

this, that when it says exclusive, that doesn't

29:17

necessarily mean breaking news or this

29:21

is a crazy news story. It

29:23

just means that that publication has

29:25

exclusive rights to these

29:27

images. So you see it on People

29:30

magazine does it, TMZ does it. I'm

29:33

assuming Daily Mail does it, Page

29:35

Six does it. That's what that

29:38

means. I think people get confused

29:40

on what the word exclusive means.

29:44

And I just wanted to clear that up and you kind

29:46

of cleared it up. By

29:49

saying that for the

29:52

agents, the word exclusion means no one else

29:54

has those images, no, no other agency for

29:56

the client when they

29:58

put the exclusive

30:00

banner on

30:02

their article, that means that they

30:06

are the only ones with the rights to

30:10

run that story, that

30:12

set of images for like a certain period

30:14

of time. What happens

30:16

is our biggest challenge for the

30:19

clients and

30:22

for the syndicated agencies,

30:26

or the syndication agencies are, it's

30:29

social media. It's called prying for entertainment. That's pretty much

30:31

what it is because, when

30:34

I give an example, you buy a set of image for

30:36

like 24 hours and I mean, the

30:42

moment that you publish those images, people

30:45

start screen, you

30:48

screenshotting those images and posting

30:50

their social media accounts. So, and

30:52

taking the eyeballs that should be going

30:55

to your account, to their accounts. So

30:57

it's me. As

31:00

an agency, we see that it's unfair to the client,

31:02

it's unfair to the photographer, and

31:05

it's unfair to the agency. So

31:08

we do, Backgrade

31:11

was one of the pioneers, agents

31:14

to start going after these infringements,

31:16

talking to social media platforms to

31:18

find a better way to

31:21

take down this

31:23

exclusive image on a decent time manner that

31:30

wouldn't hurt the deal that we're

31:32

making with our clients. But

31:36

yes, that's what the exclusive

31:39

banner means that supposedly, that

31:41

should be the only client platform that

31:45

should have those image up. But

31:48

as I said, like people- You're

31:50

saying people steal the pictures, but not

31:52

big accounts. If a big account- Not

31:56

big accounts, no. No, legit accounts,

31:59

they don't- Right, but you're saying

32:01

if it's a big fan account and they

32:03

steal the pictures, which just is a good

32:05

warning for those fan accounts, if

32:07

you steal pictures, they're going to find you and

32:10

your account's going to get taken down. Look,

32:14

let's say the big fan accounts,

32:17

okay, over

32:19

like millions of followers. So

32:21

if they post their image in their account, it's

32:25

unfair to the client who bought those images. Right.

32:28

Because they take in the eyeballs. It's like, why the fan is going

32:30

to go to my client's website

32:33

or social media platform to

32:36

see those images being posted

32:38

on the fan accounts? So yeah, we

32:42

took down already

32:44

thousands of fans'

32:46

accounts. It's not because we don't like them, it's

32:49

because this is a business. Like our contributors,

32:51

they need to eat. That's

32:54

pretty much it. They need to be compensated for

32:56

their work. Well,

33:00

I just actually posted a set of

33:02

pictures that somebody

33:05

asked me in the comments, dude,

33:08

did you get paid to post this? And

33:10

I said to the person, no, the opposite.

33:12

I had to pay for the pictures. And

33:15

that was the Halsey alleged

33:18

engagement photos, which everyone

33:21

in the comments said, these look so staged.

33:23

I've never seen more staged pictures in my

33:25

life. Now I'm not going to put you

33:27

on the spot and ask you if they're

33:30

staged. But I

33:32

do want to say to everyone listening,

33:34

I did ask you, I said, were

33:36

these staged? Because I

33:38

think people think like, I'm stupid. Like I thought

33:40

the same thing. I was like, wow, these are

33:43

really cute pictures. They were really cute. They were

33:45

great. I was happy to post

33:47

them anyway, even if they were staged

33:49

because I thought they were adorable. But

33:52

I did ask you, of course you said no.

33:55

And you don't have to answer, but I'm

33:57

just saying. think

34:00

I'm fucking stupid. And I

34:02

will say no all the time. But when

34:06

I look at the image that when I first saw it,

34:09

I wanted to have thought it was a stage I call

34:11

the photographer and I'm not

34:14

gonna say maybe could

34:16

be staged by the timing by her

34:18

saying like, Look, let's go out. Of course,

34:20

there's gonna be a photographer outside. Let's do

34:22

this. You know, they already knew that there

34:24

was gonna be photograph, but there was no

34:27

call saying, Hey, come

34:30

here and show this out of images. But

34:32

they, I mean, they are perfect.

34:35

They are beautiful images. They

34:37

do look stage. Yeah, you're saying she

34:40

took the chance. You're saying that maybe she and

34:42

her mind were like, Okay, let's make these look

34:44

good because a photographer is going to follow us.

34:46

We're obviously in the middle of a public

34:49

park. Let's make these look

34:51

good. But you're saying there was no call

34:53

prior being like, Hi, this is

34:55

Halsey. I'm going to be at Central Park at

34:58

two o'clock. Yeah, no,

35:00

okay. I've seen hundreds

35:03

of set of images that I look at.

35:05

I'm like, Oh my God, this this gotta

35:07

be staged. Honestly, most

35:11

of them they're not most

35:13

of them like not as I said, like 99% they are not

35:16

just like, beautiful

35:19

shot. That's that's

35:22

what it is. Hey

35:31

guys, you know how in the beginning of

35:33

a friendship or a relationship, there's so much

35:35

effort being put in, like how you feel

35:37

special and like a priority in their life.

35:40

The worst is when someone in your life

35:42

gets really comfortable and starts to take you

35:44

for granted. We hate that.

35:47

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35:49

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35:51

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38:04

me ask you a question. I don't know if you want to answer this, but what

38:07

about, and this is another set of pictures

38:10

I just recently posted the pictures of Zac

38:12

Efron and Gerard

38:14

Butler getting on a

38:17

yacht with a bunch of people. Where

38:21

is the photographer? Again,

38:23

you're not staged. I mean, those people

38:25

could argue also kind of looked like

38:27

staged because they were great shots, but

38:31

where's the photographer? Is

38:33

the photographer so far away with a long lens

38:35

that they didn't even know a photographer

38:37

was taking their picture, do you think? I can

38:39

guarantee you they didn't know. Guarantee

38:42

you. Okay. But they didn't

38:44

know. Okay. I don't

38:47

think people actually claimed that that

38:49

set was staged, but I've seen

38:51

other comments

38:53

about pictures of celebrities on

38:55

boats specifically where

38:58

the audience thinks it's staged.

39:00

To me, that seems like,

39:03

I don't know, if they're on a

39:06

boat in the middle of the water, obviously

39:08

you see a photographer, but you're saying these

39:10

photographers are that stealth that

39:13

they're not seeing on a boat. On

39:16

a boat, yeah. Okay. You don't

39:18

have to tell us how it's done, even though I'm very

39:20

curious. I don't want you to tell us. Look,

39:23

just think about it. They do have

39:25

to get a boat to go after these people. That's

39:28

why I say it's costly. An

39:30

hour on a boat, it's easy, like a thousand bucks.

39:35

The guys are taking the risk. I

39:37

could have sold it, could have not sold it, but

39:40

yeah, that's ... I don't know, one year on

39:42

vacation, I think your garden is down. Of

39:45

course, that's all I would never

39:48

think that

39:51

could be someone else on a boat taking pictures.

39:54

Really? Even if you're like Taylor Swift, and

39:56

now I'm referring to those great shots of

39:58

Taylor Swift and Travis Keneally. when

40:01

they went to, I believe, the Bahamas, there

40:03

was a set of shots that were really,

40:05

really good. You think that she was so

40:08

relaxed and so comfortable that she wasn't

40:10

even thinking about paparazzi, like

40:13

I'm in the Bahamas, I'm on a private beach, there

40:15

is no fucking way there's

40:17

gonna be paparazzi around. Do you think that's what

40:19

she was thinking? Yeah.

40:22

Yeah. So where was he?

40:24

Was he in like, was he in

40:27

like the seagrass? Like where was the

40:29

photographer? Like it was so

40:31

crazy because those shots also looked really close.

40:35

Not really, those shots are kind of far away, but the

40:37

shots are, I mean, that set of image, one

40:41

of the best set of images that I haven't

40:43

seen in a long, long time. I love them. But

40:45

yeah, they are photographers on

40:47

the boat. Look, when you were on

40:50

this place, they're not. And you know

40:52

the place, like of course the photographer

40:54

knew the island, knew the country, knew

40:56

the state. These

41:00

guys, they are from these places. Let

41:03

me put this way. So they know

41:05

like, let's say Taylor Swift takes out on

41:07

a boat. I mean, there

41:09

are only a few places that you can go to

41:11

relax the beaches, you know, it's like a

41:14

tourist. So, and

41:16

get on another boat and they're like, okay,

41:18

let's go one by one. Let's see like

41:20

where she could be. And

41:22

that's how it's done. But

41:25

we are very lucky because we have

41:27

a very broad network

41:30

of photographers. So, rarely

41:32

we need to send

41:35

photographers abroad to get

41:37

this set of images. Usually they are there from the

41:39

top, out of the city, they're

41:41

locals. So they know how to, they

41:44

know their way around. Let's put that way. That

41:46

makes sense. So you're saying when you

41:48

see like these vacation shots in Mexico,

41:50

you also do get a lot of,

41:53

you get a lot of photographs of

41:56

celebrities vacationing in Mexico. You're saying that

41:58

these are local photographers. They

42:00

know their way around the

42:03

dunes and the seagrass and

42:05

where the celebrities might be

42:08

taking a boat out to a secret island.

42:10

So because they have that knowledge, that

42:13

works to their advantage of getting the best shots.

42:15

100% yes. OK,

42:18

let me ask you about another. I

42:20

mean, I could ask you literally the

42:22

backstory of every single set of photographs

42:24

I've bought from you guys from the

42:26

past two months, but we're running out

42:28

of time. So I want to get

42:30

to a very, very controversial set of

42:33

pictures that I

42:36

posted exclusively. Do

42:42

you know what I'm going to say? No.

42:49

Travis Kelsey, Tristan

42:52

Thompson, and Leonardo DiCaprio, all

42:55

leaving Bird Street's club. Are

42:59

you familiar? I am, yeah. OK,

43:02

so I want to say back to what

43:04

you said earlier, you know your client so

43:06

well, you often will

43:10

get in a great set of pictures,

43:12

and you'll pitch specifically to that client

43:14

that you know will want to buy

43:16

these pictures. So that

43:19

is what happened with

43:21

this specific set of

43:24

pictures. Now, tell me if I'm saying too much.

43:26

We can cut it out. But I'm going to

43:28

just tell everyone, and you could corroborate

43:30

my story, that that

43:33

is exactly what happened with this. You got this

43:35

set of pictures. You contacted

43:38

me Saturday afternoon. I was on

43:40

vacation. I was supposed to be

43:42

on vacation. You were like, I

43:44

got these pictures. They're

43:46

interesting. And

43:48

we also have a tip

43:51

from a source that said,

43:54

these three gentlemen

43:56

were inside the restaurant

43:58

hanging out. do you

44:00

want this set of pictures? And I think I

44:02

went back and forth. I was like, I don't

44:04

know, I don't know. And then finally I was

44:07

like, sure. And

44:09

I posted the pictures Saturday night because there was

44:11

a little bit of back and forth if I

44:13

remember. I was

44:16

trying to convince you that because she'll

44:18

do well for you. Yes. You

44:20

were trying to convince me the pictures were doing well.

44:23

We didn't see Travis's face. You

44:26

had told me that you had heard that

44:28

the person driving the car was his bodyguard

44:30

or driver. It turned out to be his

44:33

friend. That was

44:35

the first thing that people were

44:37

quick to correct me on. The

44:40

second thing was that, how

44:43

do you know that's Travis? How do

44:45

you know that's Travis? And I told

44:47

them several times because you had a

44:49

tip from your own sources that he

44:51

was inside the restaurant hanging out with

44:53

Tristan and Leonardo. And the photographer just

44:56

happened to get them,

44:58

leaving all within, I think, like a half an

45:00

hour of one another. That's

45:03

true, yeah. Somebody asked

45:05

in the comments, why didn't the photographer

45:07

get any other celebrities? You're trying to

45:09

make a story out of something that's

45:11

nothing. We got them. We

45:14

got the Capri and we got Tristan. No, no,

45:16

no, I'm sorry. Other celebrities that were there

45:19

that night besides those three. We

45:22

didn't know. You did not. We

45:25

didn't know about any other celebrities. Right,

45:27

okay. We knew about those

45:29

three. That's the ones that we knew. And yeah,

45:31

we did make a mistake about the bodyguard. And

45:34

I apologize for that. What

45:36

happened was Travis

45:39

was on the back seat. So he was

45:41

not on the front seat with his friend. Let's put it

45:43

this way. So we

45:45

knew that was Travis, that's 100%. So

45:49

when we started looking through social media

45:51

to see if we could find the

45:53

person driving with it kind of to connect

45:55

with Travis, just to be 100% sure that

45:57

was Travis. We

46:01

saw the friend in a few events

46:03

with Travis. So we thought,

46:05

okay, that's his bodyguard. And we, we,

46:07

we see like, we thought, actually

46:11

we did some research and we were like,

46:13

we know, we know his bodyguard. It's not,

46:15

it's not this guy. And we were like,

46:17

ah, maybe the bodyguard was off because we've

46:19

seen this guy with Travis or what on,

46:21

on Travis social media accounts

46:24

and different events. But they

46:26

were never like hugging or anything. He was always

46:28

the guy on the background pretty much. So

46:31

yeah, we did, we

46:33

did label him as the bodyguard and

46:36

pretty quick you gave us

46:38

a call and told us that the

46:40

guy was actually a friend, not a bodyguard. But

46:43

yeah, that was our fault. Apologize for that.

46:46

Also people were really upset that

46:48

I wrote that it

46:52

was a boy's night. They

46:54

were very upset by that, that,

46:57

that caption, which I literally

47:00

copied from the email you sent because

47:03

like I said, it was

47:05

Saturday night and I was on vacation. So

47:07

I just copy and pasted. And

47:11

I didn't mean that, you know,

47:14

they had all like planned

47:17

ahead to meet the meat at bird street. I

47:19

didn't mean that. And I don't think your caption,

47:21

you met, you guys meant that either. I think

47:23

you guys just meant that there was a lot

47:26

of guys hanging out. Exactly.

47:28

Same thing. I mean,

47:30

people always want to see like the, I don't

47:32

know, kind of a dark side of, on

47:35

everything. Boy's night out, like

47:37

none of them, like Travis was

47:41

not with Taylor. Tristan

47:44

was not with anyone,

47:46

with another woman. And,

47:49

and the copy, I'm Leo

47:51

the same thing. We,

47:55

so that's what, that's

47:57

our, like, as soon as like, okay, three.

48:00

three guys like Minnie could be a business, Minnie

48:02

could be anything, you know? Right.

48:05

Could be that they went there separately

48:08

and they saw each other there and they

48:10

hang out. Could be that too.

48:12

We didn't say that they planned that. We

48:14

said that like they were talking amongst

48:17

themselves inside the club. And

48:19

we have a witness, we have

48:21

a tipster that told us that.

48:24

So that's why, that's the

48:26

reason why we wrote that on

48:29

the caption. The other correction

48:31

was that Leonardo DiCaprio was actually with his

48:33

niece, I think. That was

48:36

the other correction. Cause I think you guys

48:38

said mystery to mystery

48:40

women. And I think one of them was

48:42

actually identified as

48:46

his younger niece. Yeah,

48:48

I think we

48:51

caption as a two female friends. Some,

48:53

some. No, you said, yeah,

48:55

mystery. Yeah, I don't think

48:57

it indicated that he was, out

49:01

on a triple date with two women. I

49:03

think it just, sometimes you just have to

49:05

describe the picture guys. You know what I

49:07

mean? And people get so bent out of

49:09

shape about the

49:11

words that are used, but sometimes it's just

49:14

as simple as just describing a picture. It's

49:17

exactly, it's like, okay, Leonardo DiCaprio

49:19

comes out of a

49:22

club and there is two girls inside the

49:24

car. How do you, how do you

49:26

caption that? They want you to

49:28

say, and I'm not saying specifically about

49:30

Leo, but they want you to say

49:32

Leonardo DiCaprio with two platonic, non-girlfriends,

49:37

coming out of the club. Now my final question.

49:40

And it was a car shot. We didn't have a clear picture of

49:43

the girls. It

49:45

was, the other day I think we

49:47

shot him on the street with his

49:50

niece and we could easily ID the niece cause

49:52

it was a clean shot. So,

49:54

and we did like Leonardo DiCaprio out and about

49:56

with his niece and W Hughes. But,

50:00

Yeah, at the

50:02

same time, you don't want to make a mistake saying that

50:04

it's his niece and it's not his niece or it's someone

50:07

else and that's not someone else. Right. So

50:09

you just say mystery or, you know. Yeah.

50:12

We should replace the mystery to a

50:14

unknown female, something like that. I think

50:16

it sounds better than mystery, I think.

50:18

I don't know. For some reason. No,

50:21

I agree with you. When people

50:23

read mystery girls

50:25

or females, I think they

50:27

think we're trying to make a connection

50:29

between the couple and that person. A

50:34

romantic connection for some reason.

50:36

So going forward, you'll

50:39

make the connection. You'll make the correction. Going

50:41

forward will be better. Yes. Okay.

50:44

The last question I want to ask you, which

50:46

you already covered, but this is also something that

50:48

I see literally on every

50:51

single post where there's a

50:53

celebrity couple. There's

50:55

so many comments like PR couple,

50:57

PR shot, the publicists call this

50:59

like it's on the Timmy and

51:01

Kylie pictures. It's on

51:04

the Sebastian Stan and Annabelle

51:06

Wallace pictures. It's

51:08

even on some like Travis and Taylor

51:10

pictures. What

51:13

do you have to say about that? Again, I

51:15

just want you to reiterate, you're not getting

51:17

calls from

51:20

the publicists to capture these

51:22

couples in order for the

51:24

public to think they're together. Just

51:27

give the photographers the credit pretty much. They

51:31

do an amazing job on

51:34

a daily basis, capturing

51:37

this image that, I

51:40

mean, we are so interested

51:42

in seeing like every day. But

51:45

yeah, unfortunately, I know that

51:47

people want to believe that

51:50

it's all staged, but it's

51:53

not. It's not. As

51:55

someone who's been in the business for, I think

51:58

you've been in the business for like 25 years at this point. point,

52:00

maybe longer. What do you think

52:03

about PR couples,

52:05

like celebrity couples that are just

52:08

together for PR? Well,

52:17

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53:17

you think it is as prevalent as people

53:20

claim it to be? I've been in

53:22

the business since 2007. I

53:25

love the gossip, but I

53:28

don't think that it does happen. I'm

53:31

not saying that it doesn't. But

53:34

mostly it's

53:36

not publicity or anything. I

53:39

remember when I

53:41

started born with... Bradley

53:46

Cooper and Lady Gaga. I

53:48

remember when they were filming the movie and

53:51

they went to Georgia Baldy

53:54

in Santa Monica. And

53:56

Bradley was driving a motorbike.

54:00

motorcycle, which is at

54:02

the time we thought it was weird. Why

54:06

did you think that was weird? And Gag

54:08

was not actually because we

54:12

take pictures of Bradley

54:14

all the time. Bradley Cooper is a huge celebrity,

54:16

so he never drives a motorcycle. All of a

54:18

sudden, he was driving a motorcycle. And we knew

54:20

that in the movie, he was driving

54:22

a motorcycle, so we kind of start

54:25

connecting. But when we saw him arriving

54:27

with Gaga, with

54:29

Jordy Baldy and Gaga, with her

54:33

arms wrapped around him, she was in the

54:35

backseat. We were like, this

54:38

is for the movie. It has to be

54:40

for the movie. They are not dating. They

54:42

are not dating. It looked like they were dating, and

54:44

he did a great

54:47

job passing the impression that they

54:49

were in love, like on screen and off

54:51

screen. I mean, you saw the, I think

54:54

it was in the Oskar's. Am I right?

54:56

Yeah, on the Oskar's when they performed

54:59

one of the songs of the movie. So

55:02

I would say prior

55:06

to releasing a

55:08

movie, that's

55:10

when you can start thinking like,

55:13

OK, hold on. They're moving together. They're

55:15

going out together. I'm not saying that it

55:17

cannot happen, but that's when we start like,

55:19

OK, this is publicity. This is definitely publicity.

55:23

But just out of the blue, out of the ordinary, you see

55:25

a new couple. I mean, rarely

55:29

they do it for publicity. Especially the couples

55:31

that are hard to get, like Sebastian

55:33

Stan and Annabelle Wallace. I feel like

55:35

you don't get them a lot. Oh,

55:38

yeah, 100%. Right?

55:41

Yeah. OK. We

55:43

are not called for Sebastian

55:45

Stan. We were not called for, ah,

55:49

there was someone. I

55:52

remember everyone thought that we were called

55:54

for Harry Styles and Oliva Wilde. Yes.

55:57

Because we talked about that, I think.

56:00

last time you were on the podcast and nobody

56:02

believed you. Do you think people will believe you

56:04

this time? Nobody

56:06

believed you. No, I don't.

56:08

I don't think people believe. So

56:11

they believe I mean, they

56:14

like to believe that this thing, it's always staged.

56:17

Right. Yes. The leverage for all. All

56:20

right. Oh, wait, there was

56:22

one other set. I just want to

56:24

ask you about Why Have You? Before

56:26

we go, the Luke Newton and Antonia,

56:28

his girlfriend, Antonia set that

56:30

was taken the night of the

56:32

Bridgerton premiere in London or the

56:35

Bridgerton event in London. That

56:37

was also highly criticized

56:40

and critiqued. Those pictures people

56:44

thought or they claimed that his girlfriend

56:46

called the paparazzi because she wants to

56:49

be famous. Now, how would this girl

56:51

even know who to contact? Do

56:54

you know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, no,

56:56

no. And the people also

56:58

wanted to know why you didn't get. And

57:00

I think I asked you this, why you

57:03

didn't get Nicola Coughlin, his co-star. You only

57:05

got him. And I can't. I

57:08

can't speak for the photographer, but

57:10

I do believe that he had no

57:12

idea who she was because

57:14

look, let's put this way. And

57:17

I'm not going to pronounce his name because with

57:19

my accent, you're going to you're going to laugh

57:22

about it. So. But

57:24

Luke. Yeah, that's good. Wasn't

57:27

even. And

57:30

now we're ready. Let's put that way. That's

57:32

there has been a shift of celebrities that need

57:35

to be covered these days. Like we used to

57:37

cover a lot of the. Ries

57:40

Witherspoon, Jennifer

57:42

Garner. I

57:45

mean, the A-list celebs. And

57:47

I think it's it's been it's been

57:49

now a shift to the to

57:52

the newcomers. And and

57:55

let's see if I pronounce right. Luke Newton is

57:58

one of the newcomers. And

58:00

I don't know if

58:03

you can say the name of the client, but someone

58:05

give a heads up saying like, this

58:08

couple will do well for me. And

58:11

we just like, okay, let's keep a-

58:14

I said it. You said it, yeah.

58:16

I said it to you. You don't know if

58:18

I could say that, but yeah, you said it to me. No, I

58:20

don't, I'm very open with my audience. I

58:23

want to get them who they want to

58:25

see. So I, we

58:27

have this conversation all the time, you and

58:29

I, I say to you, you have to

58:31

stop getting the same old people that you

58:33

used to get. Like that's not who the

58:35

people want to see. They want to see

58:37

the new generation. They want to see the

58:39

celebrities that are in their favorite

58:41

TV shows that are on now, not the

58:44

favorite TV shows that were on 10 years

58:46

ago. Like you don't even watch Bridgerton. Cause

58:48

I think I asked you like, do you

58:50

watch Bridgerton? Do you even know who these people are? And

58:53

I, cause I'm saying this, cause people won't

58:55

believe that you don't know who they are,

58:57

but you don't watch the show. I'm sure

58:59

none of your photographers watch the show. So

59:02

I think it's very, you

59:04

know, believable that they wouldn't know who

59:06

these new up and comer up

59:09

and coming celebrities are. Yeah,

59:12

you're right. And, and

59:15

look, you know, I deal, we

59:17

deal with hundreds of clients.

59:21

And I think the

59:23

clients are little by little, they, they, they

59:27

starting to find to actually, to realize

59:29

that has been a shift. Most of

59:31

my clients, they, they haven't

59:33

realized yet. They keep publishing,

59:35

like people that

59:38

did not bring enough traffic

59:40

to their platforms. Right. And,

59:45

and of course what happened is not,

59:47

not enough traffic, they don't make enough

59:49

money and, and

59:52

they tend to blame kind of us for, this

59:55

picture is not worth it. Like it's not worth it.

59:57

It's just like, you guys gotta

59:59

find. You've got to find

1:00:01

a way to monetize. You've got

1:00:04

to find a way

1:00:07

to reach their audience. They have to find a way

1:00:09

to reach their specific audience. Yeah. I

1:00:12

want to say it looks like

1:00:14

they still leave when everything used

1:00:16

to be print. It's

1:00:20

the digital era, social media platforms.

1:00:22

You've got to find out. It

1:00:25

drives me crazy when we

1:00:27

have a beautiful set of

1:00:29

us celebrity that has over 100 million followers.

1:00:33

And the client's style was like, not

1:00:35

for me. And I'm like, there's 100

1:00:37

million people. And then you know that because they tell you all

1:00:39

the time. Well, yeah, you tell me. Yeah.

1:00:42

Well, you convinced me to

1:00:45

buy sets that I'm like, I

1:00:47

don't know. And then they wind up doing really

1:00:49

well. And the audience loves the pictures. And I

1:00:51

say to you, wow, you were right. And I

1:00:53

was wrong. Thank you.

1:00:56

Thank you for that. Yeah.

1:01:00

Well, I like to tell everyone that

1:01:02

my specific platforms are for the

1:01:04

people, by the people. They're not

1:01:07

for celebrities. And I think that

1:01:09

all the other celebrity outlets

1:01:11

are for celebrities. Do you know what

1:01:13

I'm saying? They're

1:01:16

putting out the news. They're putting out the headlines

1:01:18

for the celebrities, where I want to listen

1:01:20

to what the people want. And

1:01:22

I want to cater to them. So

1:01:24

that's why I'm asking for pictures of

1:01:26

Luke Newton. And I'm asking for pictures

1:01:28

of who else. I told

1:01:31

you a bunch of new hot stars that

1:01:33

I was like, the kids would love to

1:01:35

see these people. So

1:01:37

I think it's important to just

1:01:39

listen to your audience. That's my point. Oh, yeah. That's

1:01:43

why you're doing so well. I've told

1:01:46

you many times. You

1:01:49

kind of disrupt the business. Coming

1:01:52

in the middle of all these

1:01:55

traditional publishers and being successful is

1:01:57

not easy. you

1:02:00

fresh and definitely you understand your

1:02:02

audience. I think is the

1:02:05

main thing about your platform. Yeah.

1:02:07

Well, thank you so much for

1:02:09

coming on again and clearing up

1:02:11

some misconceptions. Hopefully, but probably

1:02:14

not. This will stop the commenting,

1:02:17

but we tried. So I really

1:02:19

appreciate you coming on again and

1:02:21

talking to everyone and telling everyone

1:02:23

about your business. I find

1:02:25

it interesting. I know a lot of my

1:02:27

listeners find it interesting to take a

1:02:29

peek behind the curtain and

1:02:32

see how it's all done. So again, thank

1:02:34

you so much. Thank

1:02:36

you. Thank you for having me again. And

1:02:39

you can follow Backgrid on

1:02:41

Instagram and TikTok at Backgrid.

1:02:43

Backgrid underline USA. Backgrid

1:02:45

underscore USA. And they

1:02:48

post, you guys post all the pictures that

1:02:51

I was referring to before that don't see

1:02:53

the light of day. Like sometimes you guys

1:02:55

post them on your accounts. We

1:02:58

look, we try to post most

1:03:00

of them so we can, we can get

1:03:02

some traction. That's how we marketing our content

1:03:05

these days. So clients can come and license,

1:03:07

you know? Yeah. We

1:03:10

don't post everything because it would be impossible. I

1:03:12

would need to hire like a hundred more people,

1:03:14

but yeah, we tried to post most of it

1:03:16

and what we think it's relevant for the audience.

1:03:19

And hopefully we make enough traction

1:03:21

to get clients to license this image

1:03:23

because I mean, I'm a

1:03:25

huge advocate for

1:03:28

contributors for photographers. Without them, we wouldn't

1:03:30

have a business. So yeah. Okay.

1:03:32

Well, thank you guys. We'll see you next week. All

1:03:35

right. Thank you. Bye. All right. Bye, Alex. Thanks.

1:03:39

Thank you so much for listening to Do

1:03:41

You. Follow and listen to Do You on

1:03:43

the free Odyssey app or wherever you get

1:03:45

your podcasts.