Brad Elterman "Like It Was Yesterday"

So spotted last week at RJ Shaughnessy opening was LA photographer Brad Elterman. Brad's got an interesting history. He was a paparazzo before the term became known as it was today. Back then he was just a scrappy teenager from the Valley. Times were different back then. In an interview Brad points to around 1984 when things began changing.

"The publicists were coming in, the control was starting to happen," Elterman says. "They wanted you to sign a contract saying you couldn't syndicate the pictures, you had to have permission, you had to give your firstborn child. I'm thinking not only is this not a business now, it's boring. I didn't want to deal with the publicists."

Go over to Brad Elterman's site and take a look through history. Best thing is he's got stories for each photo ! Find the Robert Plant photo and read the story behind that gem. Hilarious !

"I was hired by Nippon Phonogram Records in Japan to do this session of the Runaways lead singer Cherie Currie at her Van Nuys home. I previously photographed her on stage, backstage, hanging out, etc. Her twin sister Marie, pictured on the left, also became a singer and the girl in the center is Vickie Ronald, with whom I attended Van Nuys High School. Record producer Kim Fowley later discovered her when he transformed her into "Vickie Razor Blade" in a band called "Venus And The Razor Blades." Like me, they all wanted to get out of the Valley to the other side of the hill to discover the magic."