The stars as you’ve never seen them before

Paris Hilton in jail, Madonna doing the ironing and Mick Jagger getting his lips done ... If they were real, Alison Jackson's photographs would be paparazzi gold dust. They appear to give us those coveted glimpses of celebrity private lives in all their oddity, vanity and banality, but they are, of course, fakes - just cleverly shot images of convincing lookalikes. Repetitive the joke may be, but Jackson has an answer to such criticism. She wants us perpetually to question our obsession with celebrity culture and our habit of trusting the media. The joke, it seems, is on us.

Holly Kyte

Confidential by Alison Jackson is published by Taschen, £24.99. Exhibition at M+B, Los Angeles, opening on December 15. Images courtesy of Taschen and M+B gallery