Alison Jackson has photographed the Queen of England on the toilet, George Bush and Tony Blair chatting in the sauna, Paris Hilton bribing her fellow inmates and Monica Lewinsky lighting Bill Clinton’s cigar. Or has she? The likenesses are uncanny, but of course, her subjects are look-alikes.
Her photos demonstrate that while seeing is believing, the truth is another story entirely. In her work, Jackson says, “Likeness becomes real and fantasy touches on the believable. The viewer is suspended in disbelief. I try to highlight the psychological relationship between what we see and what we imagine. This is bound up in our need to look—our voyeurism—and our need to believe.” Indeed, by showing “celebrities” ostensibly caught unawares, Jackson’s pictures show us what we imagine might go on behind closed doors. Her work has caused controversy, not least because it treads in a very gray area between parody and realism by seeming to break down the carefully fortified private lives of public figures.
Alison Jackson has won numerous awards for her work in the mass communication media of films, advertising, television, and books—as well as galleries. Creator of the best selling book Private, and director of the infamous TV series DoubleTake, as well as films and programs on Tony Blair, the Royal Family and the private lives of footballers, Jackson is a force to be reckoned with. Jackson studied sculpture and photography at London’s Royal College of Art and has exhibited in leading contemporary art galleries and museums throughout Europe and North America.