Simpsons’ dad is not a Homer
JESSICA AND Ashlee Simpson’s father, Joe, says he never felt respected in his own right when he was his daughters’ manager — but has finally found recognition as a fashion photographer. Simpson tells Confidenti@l that he launched the new career on the advice of a therapist during his divorce from Tina Simpson — and wept when it won him the admiration of his daughters.
“For the last 16 years or 17 years, I’ve been ‘Ashlee Simpson’s father’ or ‘Jessica Simpson’s father,’” said Simpson, who was a psychologist in Texas before his daughters’ careers took off, “Every time, my adjective is, ‘Jessica Simpson’s father, Joe Simpson.’
“I started out being respected (as a psychologist), then of course no one respects a father/manager, so I had no respect and I would just like to be respected as a photographer; someone to say, ‘Wow, look — he does have talent,’” he told us.
His own therapist suggested during the 2012 divorce that he do something that makes him happy, so Simpson says he returned to photography, which he had done as a part-time job during college.
Starting out doing test shoots for a modeling agency — a kind of tryout process that helps scouts decide whether to hire models — he has since moved on to editorial work.
“The coolest part,” he said of landing his first gig for a magazine, “was when they asked how I wanted to be credited, and I said, ‘Joe Simpson.’ It was a great moment in my life! I just get to be credit as my own person.”
Upcoming projects include the cover image for Rolling Stone Russia, and he has since shot models including Jessica White, Rachel Hunter and Angie Everhart and “Skyfall” actress Berenice Marlohe. He’s set to work with Carly Steel of “Entertainment Tonight.”
Another big moment, he says, came when Ashlee called him from Paris to say that she’d heard through a friend that White had said she loved his work. “(Ashlee) said, ‘Dad, I just wanted to tell you I was proud of you,’” said Simpson, “I was crying. I did something that was not about building my children’s business, that they respected.”