THE FANS
The relationship between celebrities and fans first came into Tom Zimmerman’s focus in 1980 as he photographed the American Film Institute tribute to James Stewart (the late Grace Kelly also attended). “I began to realize that there was a media element, the paparazzi, that fed off of these stars. And at the same time, fans got some weird kind of compensation out of being near them. I decided to explore this giant circle.”
A specialist in photo essays, Zimmerman can spend years gathering images for his projects. “Wednesday at the Pier,” published by The Times in two parts last year, was about life on the Santa Monica Pier and took three years of shooting on every Wednesday.
A native of Los Angeles, Zimmerman was formerly the curator of photography for the California Historical Society. He obtained his master’s degree in U.S. history from Loyola University and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at UCLA, where he is completing his dissertation on the history of photography in Los Angeles.
Zimmerman, 35, made photography his profession five years ago. Since that time his work has appeared in local and national publications.
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