Inside the Flashy Mind of Tim Walker

2 stars

Dolls larger than humans. Hokusai’s The Great Wave inside of a room. A living mermaid floating in a box. In Tim Walker’s world everything is possible. As I walk through the door into the exhibition, I hear Tchaikovsky’s music playing in the background. On the walls hang Lewis Carroll-like dreamscapes. Only none of this is produced by Walt Disney Animation studios. None of this is even photoshopped or CGI, it is all built in real life. In fact, Walker shoots mostly in film. From the quotes scattered around the photographs it becomes apparent that he is a visionary. He reads, hears or sees something and can immediately watch it transform into a photograph before his eyes. For this exhibition, he has gone through the nooks and crannies of the V&A, one of his favourite places in the world, to find inspiration for 10 new photo-worlds. Given the fact that he is a Londoner himself, this feels very intimate, like stepping into his very own studio. Working with names like Tilda Swinton, Margot Robbie, Timothee Chalamet and Naomi Campbell, there is no need to wonder whether he is a big name in the industry. Walker is at the top of the fashion photography game right now.

Fashion photography as a phenomenon is relatively new. It only started about a hundred years ago after a few decades of hand illustrated issues of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. Walker actually worked as an assistant for one of the most influential photographers of this new wave of fashion photography, the American Richard Avenon. It is clear to see the influence of Avenon in Walker’s work, from using the same models like Tilda Swinton to using animals and animal-like poses and expressions.

Walker plays with colour, perspective and scale. He takes a concept and stretches it like a rubber band – to the max. Sometimes the result is brilliant. Sometimes the rubber band snaps; the photos lose novelty. But maybe this is what fashion photography seems like to the outsider. Fashion photography is intrinsically flashy. It is pictures of the aristocrat, of a separate social class to the rest of us, wearing brands we couldn’t even dream of wearing in places we’ll never visit. It’s built upon an aura of unattainability. Maybe this is why I’m mostly drawn to his travel photography, which constitutes one of the ten worlds Walker has built inside the exhibition. The photos here are still staged and have elements of silky dresses, pearls and perfectly done makeup in them. But rather than being taken in a studio they’re taken in an organic environment.

That’s not to say some of Walker’s shots aren’t absolutely ingenious. They’re taken straight out of a gleaming dream or a beautiful nightmare. It is definitely worth checking out for yourself. If the premise of fashion photography is to awe the viewer, Tim Walker hits jackpot this time.