Alison Jackson, a contemporary, BAFTA and multi award-winning artist, photographer and filmmaker explores the cult of celebrity – an extraordinary phenomenon manufactured by the media, publicity industries and the public figures themselves. To raise questions about this, Jackson creates celebrity ‘news’ that appears real and plausible but isn’t.

She creates convincingly realistic work portraying the imagined private lives of public figures using cleverly styled lookalikes. Resemblance becomes real, and fantasy touches on the plausible. Jackson creates scenes that the public have all imagined but never seen. It’s an exploration of our insatiable desire to get personal with public personalities, raising questions about the power and seductive nature of imagery which incites voyeurism and our need to believe – Jackson challenges our preconceptions.

Jackson takes portraits of (real!) famous actors, politicians and celebrities, collected by Museum collections, such as at the National Portrait Gallery, The Parliamentary Art Collection in London and SF MOMA, San Francisco amongst many others.

In 2019 Jackson founded and launched the photography initiative to include photography workshops, programs, competition and exhibition of A Day in Your Life to cultivate, nurture and celebrate the future creatives of tomorrow from under – represented, lower socio-economic, minority backgrounds, and people living with disabilities. Anyone who hasn’t had a chance to showcase their talent yet – A Day in Your Life can provides creative lifelines but also life-changing opportunity for all ages: from 7 upwards.

Jackson mentors young people and is a Member of the Alumni Council for The Royal College of Art, Trustee of Chelsea Art Theatre; Ambassador to the K&C Foundation; Ambassador to the Spinal Injuries Association. Jackson supports a number of charities, including MacMillan Cancer Support, Marie-Curie, Jeans for Genes Day and Cancer Research UK amongst others.

She has published numerous books including Private Confidential, by Penguin, Confidential by Taschen, Up the Aisle, Stern Private.

Her work has been acquired by many public museum collections including The Parliamentary Art Collection, London; The National Portrait Gallery, London; SF MOMA, San Francisco;London; Musée de la Photographie, Charleroi, Brussels; The Frances Foundation, Paris and The International Centre of Photography amongst others.