The Wild Dreamer: Tim Walker

The tiny lacquer snuffbox, part of the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection at the V&A, sports two iridescent dragons on the top and bottom, but as soon as Tim Walker saw it he could see “an empress, walking her pet dragon at night time and picking a flower that only blooms at full moon.”

The dreamy vision was the basis of ‘Lil’ Dragon’, one of the 10 new projects, the celebrated fashion photographer has created for Tim Walker: Wonderful Things (21 September 2019 – 8 March 2020), a new V&A exhibition in London that celebrates his extraordinary contribution to image-making and the inspirational role that the museum’s collection plays in his creative process.

The shimmering burgau shell of the snuffbox’s dragon inspired Walker and set-designer Shona Heath, a long-time collaborator, to experiment with ultraviolet light with bright green, blue and purple UV makeup and paint. Working with ultraviolet was a challenging task that Walker had never attempted before but have added dream-like quality to the final works.

“To me, the V&A has always been a palace of dreams – it’s the most inspiring place in the world. The museum’s collection is so wide and eclectic, and I think that’s why it resonates with me so much. Many of the objects that I saw during my research at the museum made my heart swell and I wanted to try to create a photograph that would relate not only to the physical presence and beauty of that object, but also to my emotional reaction to it,” Walker says.

Amongst the objects that inspired his latest projects are an exquisite illuminated manuscript made in the 1470s for the Duchess of Brittany, the whiplash graphic lines of Aubrey Beardsley’s provocative illustrations from the 1890s, and the work of the V&A’s textile conservators — on display will be a dress from Alexander McQueen’s 2009 The Horn of Plenty collection, partially wrapped in protective fabric.

“Each new shoot is a love letter to an object from the V&A collection, and an attempt to capture my encounter with the sublime. For me, beauty is everything,” the photographer says.

Lydia Caston, Assistant Curator of Photographs at the V&A, describes a Tim Walker shoot as a little like being on a movie set populated by models, lighting directors, set designers, makeup artists, hair stylists, fashion editors and photo assistants. “Everything on set moves very quickly; props are added, buttons are sewn on and sculptures are made on the spot,” she recalls adding that the team approach is integral to the success of Walker’s process and his collaborators are something of an extended family.

For one of the new projects, titled ‘Box of Delights’, inspired by a 17th-century casket with a hidden miniature garden, Walker collaborated with model James Spencer to create the storyline of the shoot. While on another project, inspired by Edith Sitwell’s clothing and jewellery in the V&A’s collection, he shot with actor Tilda Swinton, herself a distant relative of Sitwell.

“Tim has taken his photography to a very exciting place for these new pictures and challenged himself with each process,” says Caston, noting that Heath’s immersive exhibition design will “truly transports visitors into Tim’s wild imagination, treating each new photoshoot as its own enchanting world. For example, Heath has created a mesmerising UV world for Lil’ Dragon and the snuffbox, like the other museum objects Tim has selected, will be displayed alongside his new pictures. Some of Shona’s props and set pieces, created especially for the photoshoots, will feature in the exhibition too, including a dragon perched in a tree and other fantastical hybrid animals.”

Walker has been contributing to Vogue, along with other glossy magazines, on a regular basis since 1995, and has become known for his extravagant staging producing some of fashion magazine’s most dreamlike projects.

Caston notes, “You can instantly spot one of Tim’s photographs when turning the pages of a magazine. His otherworldly approach to visual storytelling blurs fantasy and reality to create pictures that are surreal, humorous and often moving, as he says himself: ‘fashion photography is the dream department of photography’.”

She adds, “He is a visual storyteller, mixing disparate references from classical fairy tales to childhood memories, historic garments to a Constable cloud-study painting. He combines these sources all together to create an eclectic firework display in his pictures.”

For the V&A project, the photographer spent months exploring the museum, visiting its stores, even hiking across the enormous roof and wandering through the warren of underground air ducts, discovering a side of the museum most visitors never see.

The exhibition will open with a retrospective of some of Walker’s best-loved photographs and extracts from his Super 8 films from the past 25 years, showcasing his arc as an artist towards his latest projects.

“Tim is somewhat of a visual activist, committed to a vision of beauty in the broadest sense. His pictures can be whimsical, enchanting and sometimes dark. They highlight his joyful energy and inquisitive mind and always invite the viewer to step into a magical world. You will notice something new each time you look at one of his pictures,” Caston says, adding that in the ever-changing landscape of fashion photography, Walker has always remained contemporary and deeply connected to the issues he believes are important.

“He has an especially creative mind and a unique ability to see even the most ancient artefacts in a contemporary context,” Caston says, noting that the photographer has “done a lot to help fashion magazines to diversify, and many of the models featured in the exhibition defy conventional stereotypes of age, ethnicity or gender.”

This story was first published in PRESTIGE SINGAPORE (October 2019)