WE’VE almost all been fascinated by someone famous – a sports icon, film star or world leader – yet few people would have Richard Simpkin’s dedication.

The Australian has spent the past 23 years amassing a collection of some 2,000 photographs of himself with celebrities. Just 500 of these are featured in the Open Eye Gallery’s exhibition, yet they still take up most of two walls – a chronological collage featuring everyone from Kylie Minogue (once with early-90s curls and another with a pixie crop) to the Dalai Lama.

Perhaps even more fun than star-spotting is seeing the changes in Simpkin’s appearance. He gradually morphs from a teenager to a broad-shouldered man on the cusp of middle age, trying out different hairstyles along the way.

Elsewhere in the exhibition, ordinary women are given their own taste of celebrity life, through the lens of Los Angeles-based photographer Simone Lueck. Those who responded to her advert on Craigslist for “fabulous, striking, interesting older women to pose as a glamorous movie star”, are dressed as real or imagined characters of their choosing.

The result is an intriguing insight into the secret fantasies and self-perception of those featured.

Meanwhile Martin Parr’s Painted Photographs are strangely compelling, even for those familiar with a newspaper’s photographic archive. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Jayne Mansfield and Katie the Poodle are among those shown in pictures altered for publication in the days before Photoshop.

Laura Davis