Hollywood stars out of frame as photo agency Diimex changes focus

One of the nation’s leading picture agencies has retreated from the celebrity paparazzi sector.

Zac Efron arrives at the Australian premiere of The Greatest Showman in 2017. Picture: AAP

One of the nation’s leading picture agencies has retreated from the celebrity paparazzi sector, blaming rising overheads and the implosion of Australia’s magazine industry for destroying the once-thriving market.

Diimex director Carlo Cossalter said his agency was instead concentrating on developing a groundbreaking new service that would see clients offered images linked with prearranged advertisements to run alongside them.

The firm’s withdrawal from the pap business comes despite an influx of international celebrities — from Matt Damon and Tom Hanks to Natalie Portman and Zac Efron — hitting our shores and riding out the COVID pandemic while either filming or holidaying in Australia.

While such stars would have once provided plenty of fodder for celebrity snappers and the glossy magazines, Mr Cossalter said there had been few picture sets of them hitting the market this summer because it was no longer worth the time or money needed to capture celebrities in their most candid moments.

“To be totally honest, we’re not focusing on that sort of stuff at all anymore — there’s just not enough money in it,” Mr Cossalter said.

“These sorts of jobs might have cost us $5000-plus to do in the past and we would have taken the punt to do them because we were of the opinion that if we got an exclusive set, we could make a decent return on that investment.

“To make it worth the risk in doing those jobs, you really needed to be getting $10,000-plus if you nailed it, which wasn’t always a guarantee. Now, we’re in an environment where the maximum you’re going to get from anyone is a couple of grand. We can’t afford to do them anymore and they’re just not going to get done. A local might get lucky every now and again, but you just won’t see regular, professional images of celebrities hitting the market anymore.”

Launched in 2014 as a digital media exchange that licenced stories and photographs, Diimex quickly became one of the best-known picture agencies in the country.

Alongside its standard celebrity fare, it negotiated high-profile deals for pictures of rugby league star Mitchell Pearce simulating a sex act with a dog at an Australia Day party; video of advertising guru John Singleton fighting with billionaire businessman Jack Cowin on Sydney’s Woolloomooloo Wharf; and, an award-winning photograph of Ivan Milat being wheeled out of prison for medical treatment.

“People might have thought that the merger of Bauer and Pacific magazines was only going to affect pictures of reality show contestants, but the paparazzi also contributed a lot of genuine news content as well,” Mr Cossalter said.

“They could only afford to do it because they knew that, over the course of the year, the time and money they invested in their work would pay off — and that’s no longer the case.”

Mr Cossalter said he hoped his agency’s new venture would help stabilise the industry.

“What we’re trying to do is create another market for news photos and open up a viable revenue stream by working to see if we can deliver advertisers along with the images,” he said.

“So, the idea would be we not only give you the pictures, but it comes with someone who wants to advertise around the use of that image too.”