Nick Stern

Nick Stern is a British-born American photographer who is based in Los Angeles. He has been critical of the behaviour and culture of paparazzi photographers and the use of images from Instagram by news organisations.

Biography Stern is from Hertfordshire, England. Stern established the independent news agency First News Ltd. in 2000. In 2009 he established news agency RedThink Media with David Thompson.

In November 2004 Stern took photographs of a play fort that David and Victoria Beckham were building in the grounds of their home in Hertfordshire without planning permission from East Hertfordshire District Council. Stern had previously revealed in January 2004 that the couple had built a chapel in the ground of their house with planning permission. His photographs of the fort were bought by the 'News of the World. The Beckhams subsequently sued Stern's company, First Press, for harassment and a breach of their right to a private life under the Human Rights Act 1998. He was represented by Carter Ruck on a No win, no fee arrangement. The Beckhams had originally demanded £75,000 in damages. In 2008 Stern left the entertainment news agency Splash News in protest at the paparazzi photographing of the performer Britney Spears. Stern described his time as part of the group of photographers following Spears as having a "culture of male toxicity and bravado among the photographers and doing the craziest things was almost worn as a badge of honour". He wrote an opinion piece critical of paparazzi behaviour for the HuffPost in 2012. He subsequently joined the Los Angeles based Crocmedia News agency as their picture editor and chief photographer.

Stern is critical of news organisations that use images from Instagram and Hipstamatic. In a 2012 column for CNN he wrote that apps that produce images were "equally unethical or perhaps even more so. The image never existed in any other place than the eye of the app developer" and that "A news photographer is there to record, not to produce works of art". He appeared on a 2012 edition of the Off The Ramp podcast from LA List to speak about it.

Incidents On 30 January 2020 Stern was documenting a Black Lives Matter in Fairfax when he alleges that he was beaten by police of the Los Angeles Police Department and shot in the thigh by a rubber bullet. Stern later sued the LAPD for "assault and battery, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent infliction of emotional distress". His photographs of the protest were sold to the MailOnline.

On 8 June 2025 Stern was shot by a flash-bang projectile round in his leg at close range while photographing the Los Angeles protests against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids to arrest illegal immigrants.