Public Images: Celebrity, Photojournalism, and the Making of the Tabloid Press

The stolen snapshot is a staple of the modern tabloid press, as ubiquitous as it is notorious. The first in-depth history of British tabloid photojournalism, this book explores the origin of the unauthorised celebrity photograph in the early 20th century, tracing its rise in the 1900s through to the first legal trial concerning the right to privacy from photographers shortly after the Second World War.

Packed with case studies from the glamorous to the infamous, the book argues that the can...