Capital stalkers

"Some days you'll have nothing. Then, in 24 hours, you'll have been to three press conferences, and you end your day freezing outside a hospital, waiting to snap a picture of some celebrity's latest plastic surgery," said Tian Xiaoye over coffee last week.

Now working as the local photojournalist for Hong Kong gossip media outlet Tungstar, Tian has little routine. He has chased around celebrities from pop divas Wang Fei and Karen Mok to actresses Zhang Ziyi to Shu Qi.

But most of the time, he doesn't have to look very hard.　

The fame game

"Their own agents and managers are calling you, tipping you off as to where they are," said Tian. "There's this symbiotic relationship between us where we add celebrity to their client's status."

Contrary to the notorious paparazzi of Hong Kong, Tian explains how the Chinese mainland has yet to experience a celebrity photo "golden age" where publications pay out for million-yuan photos. The stark reality is most photos sold to mainland media outlets fetch a paltry couple of hundred yuan.　

While there are also fewer hurdles in the form of legal restrictions and privacy laws, there are more ruthless paparazzi on the prowl.　

For nearly four years, Xiao Fan (pseudonym) has been trolling Beijing snapping photos for the highest bidders, usually Hong Kong media outlets.　

"A bodyguard caught me snapping pictures of a certain pop singer while at a restaurant with her family," said Xiao, unwilling to divulge his target's identity. "I kept trying to get a picture of her with her child, but her bodyguard kept shooing me away."

"Then I came back later to try again with a telephoto lens. The bodyguard came at me from the side and slapped the camera right out of my hand. I didn't even see him coming," Xiao added of the costly encounter.

Taking care of business

Although media outlets regularly offer little in fees, celebrity management firms compensate photographers with anywhere between 500 to 2,000 yuan ($79-$317) per circulated photo. For Chinese photographers, this equates to a steady paycheck, and biting the hand that pays you can lead to photographers pulling their own photos.　

"There is this weird balance of relationships you've got to keep," said Tian. "How do you keep your audience interested without offending your contacts?"　

Tian recalls how he caught a certain celebrity at a gallery opening looking overweight and disheveled, but pulled the photo after her agent caught sight of him and told him to not publish it.　

"If you take an unflattering photo of someone, you won't get a call back from that celebrity ever again," said Xiao. "And if they are big, that can equate to a substantial loss in revenue."　

Xiao explains that there is also prioritization over who is important. The market for celebrity photos changes daily. Pictures that went for tens of thousands of yuan one day could suddenly become difficult to give away for free the next day. And as most people have a camera phone with decent resolution, competition to snap candid pictures on the street is more intense than ever.

"The game has changed. Everyone has a camera now," said Guangzhou-based paparazzo Li Lewei, who since 2008 has built a reputation as one of China's busiest music photographers. Like Tian, all the running around is a labor of love.　

"I'll see all these photographers chasing someone like Jay Chou, and even though he's big, not one of them is going to make any money," said Li. "As for that scramble for photos you see? Chances are it's staged by management."　

Going incognito

Li, a music fan and graduate of the Beijing Film Academy, has not only been documenting the growing Chinese music festival phenomenon, but also kept busy by snapping mainland appearances by seminal foreign artists, such as Bob Dylan and Roger Waters to Coldplay and Bjork.

"The hardest part is fronting your own expenses, without knowing if you're going to recoup the investment. Most of the time, I'll take thousands of photos and sell a few for 100 yuan. If I'm lucky, subjects of the photos themselves will buy them from me."

Li explains that as a freelancer, knowing venue owners and promoters helps in getting equipment past security. By wrapping the camera in a dark cloth, Li muffles shutter noise to remain inconspicuous.

"I do as little as possible to distract people," he revealed. "People are not there to have their view blocked by a camera, and distracting artists from a performance is just selfish."

But not all photographers have the disregard for privacy that is needed to capture the money shots.　

"I don't feel guilty," said Xiao. "Truth be told, every good drama needs a villain and we're just part of the show."