Ahh, celebrity. Love to hate it or hate to love it, there's certainly no avoiding it. This is a world where Michael Jackson is more famous than Jesus. In fact, Jesus may have been the first superstar, because celebrity isn't a new phenomenon - oh no. When Vanity Fair magazine first began in 1913, dedicating itself to popular culture, the world's obsession with famous faces was already in full swing.

"It was an era when photography was rapidly growing in popularity, and the film industry too," explains National Portrait Gallery Curator Michael Desmond.

Nearly one hundred years later, the exhibition Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008 has descended on Canberra to leave us all starry-eyed.

The exhibition is a collection of photographs from the Vanity Fair archives - straight from the glossy pages of the magazine. Some of the images are iconic, some rarely seen, but all are people we recognise - famous folk who have shaped our culture in one way or another. These personalities include actors, writers, athletes, film stars, musicians, singers, designers, politicians, royalty, and even plain old socialites.
At first I am a little sceptical: what makes Vanity Fair any different from other mags full of celebrities and gossip?

"Well there is the historical element," explains Desmond, "a continuing tradition that you might not find with other publications. There is also this idea that Vanity Fair is more high brow, featuring academics and authors, people from the 'high arts', not just starlets" - although there are plenty of those, too. We can be sure the Paris Hiltons and Lindsay Lohans of today are no more outrageous and scandalous than the Jean Harlows and Josephine Bakers of days gone by. The old gals were just lucky that gossip blogs and camera phones weren't around in their time, so they could always be seen as glamorous and gorgeous, just as they appear in the exhibition.

The magazine itself existed in two distinct eras: from 1913 until folding in 1936, then re-launching in 1983 and continuing to the present day. The first incarnation of the magazine perfectly captures the excitement of the roaring 20s and early 30s, and particularly the dawn of the uber-cool 'Jazz Age'. Hemlines went up, hair was cut short, and everyone seemed to party all day and night. Don't be surprised if these photos have you wishing you were born many decades ago. The 1980s, when the magazine was reborn, were not all that dissimilar - everyone seemed rich, young and beautiful all over again. Hollywood was big, supermodels were bigger, and hair was biggest of all.

Today more than ever, Vanity Fair has become a 'who's who' guide to popular culture, and many regard an appearance in the magazine (especially one on the front cover) as a sign you've really 'made it'. A photo shoot for Vanity Fair has the ability to make or break a star's reputation. As such, the magazine's photographers are powerful celebrities in their own right - the most well-known of which is the legendary Annie Leibovitz. Leibovitz first came to fame as a photographer for Rolling Stone, before being poached by Vanity Fair in the early 80s. Her luscious, theatrical images seem more like oil paintings than photographs - a style that has given the magazine a definitive 'look' that people recognise today.

But why are we as a society so obsessed with celebrities anyway? "It's a familiarity thing," Desmond believes. "We live in a global village, and these people are like our friends and neighbours. We feel like we know, say, Princess Diana or Scarlett Johansson better than we know the people who live across the road from us...And to an extent we probably do!"

Madonna, Barack Obama, Nicole Kidman, Carey Grant, Prince William...they all look out at us from the gallery's walls and cabinets, united only by the fact that we know more about them than we probably should.

The magazine put the exhibition together in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery in London. Interestingly, this happened before the global financial meltdown. Does Desmond think the current times will affect the way people view a lavish exhibition filled with fame and fortune? "No, I don't think people will look at it differently, because it's ultimately about escapism. That's part of what our interest in celebrity always was about. Even during the Great Depression people still wanted to read about film stars as a way to dream and escape their everyday realities."

It is an escape that will cost you. Entry to the exhibition is ten dollars, but Desmond is quick to point out that bringing an exhibition of this size over to Australia is a costly logistical feat and at the end of the day "it's still cheaper than a movie ticket."

There's no pretending that this is a challenging exhibition. More like a walk down a sort of collective memory lane, this crowd-pleaser is good fun for film buffs, fashion fans and there's plenty of eye candy to boot. Vanity Fair has never been afraid of the theory that sex sells, and bare flesh abounds, male and female alike. In 1991, to great outrage, the cover was graced by a very naked and very pregnant Demi Moore... this is a magazine that knows a little controversy goes a long way.

After seeing Vanity Fair Portraits I was struck by the realisation that despite nearly a century having past since the magazine began not a great deal has changed. As a society we are still drawn to images of youth and beauty, we still admire talents in film, sport, music, we still wish we were them. Whether this is comforting or depressing I will leave for you to decide.

So, rather than reading a magazine this winter, why not take a walk through one?

Vanity Fair Portraits, exclusive to Canberra, is on show at the National Portrait Gallery until August 30.