Sitting in on a preview of the National Geographic magazine about the notorious Roman emperor Nero back in February 2014, a series of paparazzi-style photographs by Alex Majoli of the Roman glitterati caught my attention. They were so different from what we normally see in the pages of the magazine. “It would be a lot of fun to do something about this in Proof,” I thought to myself.

Alice Gabriner, the photo editor of the story, suggested I interview Umberto Pizzi, a legendary Italian ‘paparazzo’ now in his late 70s, whose work documenting the Italian elite for the online tabloid Dagospia has resulted in two books, Ultra Cafonal, and its predecessor, Cafonal. The title, roughly translated, means the nouveau