The Aussie man who’s snapped more than 2,000 celeb selfies

WHAT started as a teenage hobby turned into a lifelong obsession for Aussie Richard Simpkin, who has been up close and personal with the biggest names in the world.

“I haven’t been asked for an autograph since the invention of the iPhone with a front-facing camera. The only memento ‘kids these days’ want is a selfie.” - Taylor Swift.

Swift made that comment about the changing nature of celebrity/fan interactions in an article for the Wall Street Journal in June — but 25 years earlier, one young Australian started getting selfies of his own with visiting stars for a teenage hobby that soon became a lifelong obsession-slash-art project.

With the Dalai Lama in 2002.

Before retiring from the celeb-chasing circuit last year, Richard Simpkin had snapped more than 2,000 photos with a litany of the world’s most recognisable people: everyone from the Dalai Lama to Taylor Swift, from Nelson Mandela to Audrey Hepburn.

His vast collection of photographs have been shown in galleries around the world, and provide a fascinating insight into our continuing collective fascination with celebrity. We spoke to Richard to find out the gossip gleaned from a lifetime spent rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous — albeit briefly.

Bendin’ it with the Beckhams.

Q. So Richard, how did this 25-year quest start?

A. In ’89 I found out about a hotel in Sydney called the Sebel Townhouse, where all the visiting international and local celebrities would stay. You could go down there on any given day and find a Kylie Minogue, a U2, a Debbie Harry, a Bon Jovi. Being a 16-year-old kid, this was pretty amazing.

I was just getting autographs, but one day a fellow fan showed me a photo of her father. He’d been in New York in the 1970s, and was walking through Central Park when he bumped into John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Because he was a tourist he had a camera, and so he got a photo in between John and Yoko in Central Park. When I saw that photo, I couldn’t believe it, and it made me realise I should get my photo taken with people who’d be remembered in history.

Sinking a VB with Heath Ledger.

Q. You’ve had photos with everyone from Posh Spice to the Dalai Lama — do you consider yourself a fan of all these people?

A. Well I’m 41 now, and I finished this project last year. Somewhere in the mid-90s, I realised that I was doing something interesting. By that point I’d probably lost a bit of that interest in celebrity because I’d gotten older, but I’d seen that I was onto something interesting and I continued doing it with the aim to have an exhibition or a book one day. I knew that there was no point going after Big Brother housemates or people like that — it was about getting my photo taken with people who were going to be remembered in history.

A very young-looking Richard with Nelson Mandela.

Q. What have been your most positive celebrity experiences?

A. Michael Hutchence and I became really good friends — in fact the last photo of him alive was a photo of the two of us. We spent eight years together and I became his photographer, almost like the kid in Almost Famous. He was the most charismatic person I’d ever met. When I was in school holidays in 1990, I went down to the recording studio where INXS were recording their new album and I hung out with them. When it came time to go back to school, I told my mum that I really wanted to be a photographer and I was becoming good friends with Michael Hutchence, and so she let me leave school and pursue it. I ended up spending five months with INXS at the studio that year, and the friendship lasted right up until he passed away. I was meant to drive him from his hotel to band rehearsals on the day he passed away — I was sat outside waiting for him in my car when the ambulance arrived.

Bono’s one of the biggest rock stars in the world, and I’ve seen him come out of a place where there’s 100 people waiting for him, so he’ll sign and pose photos for 100 people. He doesn’t miss anyone, he gives them all attention, which is incredible.

A kiss from Kylie!

Q. And the worst?

A. People like the Hutchences and the Bonos will do anything for their fans, whereas a lot of today’s celebrities don’t seem to appreciate it as much. A lot think they don’t need to interact with their fans beyond putting out a few tweets. But the other side of the coin is, you don’t have to stop for someone just because they want a bit of your time. People always want to know who the worst ones are, but I’m just there for a moment, and I might have caught someone in a rush or on a bad day, so it’s not for me to say whether they’re nasty or bad.

Audrey Hepburn during an Aussie visit from the actress.

Q. Do you think it’s getting easier or harder for fans to get their moment for a selfie or autograph with celebrities?

A. When I started, the celebrity had almost an obligation to the fans. When they’d come out of a hotel, they were ready for people to be waiting for them and it felt like a really mutual relationship — they were happy to give you a bit of their time.

And I could just go to a press conference — I walked into a Phil Collins press conference when I was a 16-year-old in my surf gear and got a photo with him.

But during the mid-90s, I saw things change. Then I noticed more security on the scene, hotels beefing up their own security, celebrities flying in on their own private jets, publicity people, personal assistants, limo drivers who think they’re security guards, whole world of celebrity became a lot more professional and it was a lot harder to get access to these people. It’s such a bigger industry now — I’d say it’s bigger than religion. There are more people worshipping Kim Kardashian than there are worshipping religious figures.

Having a cool hat-off with Woody Allen.

Q. Do you have any advice for other people wanting to snatch a moment with their favourite celebs?

A. The international celebrities have to fly in and out. Say they’re playing Monday in Sydney and Tuesday in Melbourne — I’d go to the airport in Melbourne on Tuesday, because they’ve got to fly in sometime. And hotels: there’s only five or six hotels in each state that these people stay in. Of course, with the world of Twitter, celebrities give us a lot more clues about where they are or where they’re going. They’ll tweet pics from their hotel balconies … I know the One Direction boys almost play games with their fans, giving them hints about where they’re going and what they’re up to.

Richard & Famous, an exhibition of Simpkin’s photographs, will be on show at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery in Victoria from December 5 until February 15.

The one and only MJ.

Originally published as The Aussie man who’s snapped more than 2,000 celeb selfies