Quotes by Alison Jackson

You can watch a little bit of war from your nice living room - 30 seconds of what's going on in Syria - and when you've had enough, switch over to some celebrity programme. We live our life through screens and images in this way, and we don't know what is real or fake anymore. It doesn't matter.

— Alison Jackson

Life

The religious imagery and fairytales that formed our shared cultural references have been replaced by the cult of celebrity. Marilyn is the sex goddess, Camilla Parker Bowles is cast as the wicked witch, Che Guevara is the revolutionary. Celebrities have become visual shorthand for narratives that shape our lives.

— Alison Jackson

Wisdom

When Princess Diana died, I couldn't understand why people were mourning her death in such an enormous, hysterical way when they didn't actually know her for real.

— Alison Jackson

Life

I don't really like using ridicule as a form of humor.

— Alison Jackson

Wisdom

If you see everything through the lens, you are constantly composing pictures. I think in pictures; I don't think in text.

— Alison Jackson

Wisdom

I can't remember exactly how old I was when my parents gave me my first camera, but it was a Canon, and I was certainly far too young to have such a good camera.

— Alison Jackson

Wisdom

Photography acts as a teaser, suggesting we can know something that we can never know. And the more we can't obtain it, the more we want it.

— Alison Jackson

Wisdom

Photography seduces us into thinking we can believe photographs, whereas we can't really believe that a picture can tell us any kind of truth at all.

— Alison Jackson

Truth

Art work is inconclusive. It opens your mind up. At least, that's what I hope it does. And advertising, using exactly the same photograph, closes things down. It makes it conclusive. It sells a product, and that is its primary function.

— Alison Jackson

Success

I'd like to take more pictures of real celebrities. It would be fabulous to photograph Brad Pitt. He's so good-looking and just such a star.

— Alison Jackson

Wisdom

I'm not really interested in the celebrity themselves. I'm interested in the perception of the celebrity.

— Alison Jackson

Wisdom

I'm particularly interested in how you can't rely on your own perception.

— Alison Jackson

Wisdom

It's always fun to put fake celebrities in unlikely situations, but somehow it's even more fun when politicians are involved.

— Alison Jackson

Wisdom

Of course, my own political beliefs inform the ideas I come up with.

— Alison Jackson

Wisdom

The only people I really hate are parking attendants.

— Alison Jackson

Wisdom

I had a very outdoorsy childhood. I was athletic and used to ride and do dressage. I could ride almost before I could walk. There is a picture of me at 18 months old sitting happily on the back of a donkey.

— Alison Jackson

Wisdom

Because Bin Laden's culture doesn't permit the worship of images, they understand how powerful images are. We wouldn't have thought of creating a visual bomb. In a way, he's chopped down two iconic buildings, and used our very truth imagery, to express himself. It's fascinating... I mean, dreadful.

— Alison Jackson

Truth

Now celebrity has taken on a holy status all of its own, and we look to the stars to provide us with the transcendental experience that was once achieved through religion.

— Alison Jackson

Success

Warhol was the ultimate voyeur, constantly observing people through the lens. He watched and listened, but did not participate. Behind the camera, Warhol was in control.

— Alison Jackson

Wisdom

I think privacy is important, and it's important you don't bore people with your own boring self.

— Alison Jackson

Wisdom

I am very pro-royal. Britain without them would be a sadder place.

— Alison Jackson

Wisdom

Photography can be a deceitful, superficial medium that leads us into believing something even though we know it's not necessarily true. It lulls us into a false sense of complacency.

— Alison Jackson

Wisdom

A lot of people who look at my photographs think it is an easy joke, but it does take a bit of thinking about.

— Alison Jackson

Wisdom

Among other things, I use a Samsung mobile phone, a very bad quality video camera, and an old Olympus with extremely bad Sigma lenses.

— Alison Jackson

Wisdom