ABSTRACT
We are living in a celebrity-obsessed age. Photography plays a central role in the culture of celebrity. It could be argued that the desire to accurately see what well-known people looked like was one of the main reasons for photography coming into existence (see Chapter 2). Equally, the idea of celebrity would not exist to such an extent without photography. Over the last century and a half, photographs have played an ever-more significant part in the creation of fame in the first place; indeed, this has become so much the case that, in the 21st century, a form of celebrity can be gained purely through images themselves. However, while photographs have created almost god-like images of perfect celebrities, they are also increasingly used to suggest that those with fame are only human: an idea that, as I will argue below, makes celebrity more accessible.
