Tim Walker Pictures

Tim Walker’s show at the Design Museum is a wonderful reminder of pure magic in the creative industries. We are used to the glitz and glamour of fashion, the chic and the glossy domain of the catwalk queens, but the world of Walker is a romantic fantasia; beset with an ethereal magic that sets him apart in the fickle fashion arena. He breathes some welcome fresh air into a world of materialism.

Through his innovative lense Walker reveals a realm of myths and legends, a colourful landscape of ethereal dreamscapes in which models repose. His creations are daring, theatrical and full of a magic that has justly earned him his place in the echelons of fashion photography stardom, and a Vogue master lineage.

The 38- year-old  is based for the most part in London, the other parts travelling the globe for work or inspiration. 
The spark for fashion photography was ignited during work experience at Condé Naste archiving images by photographer extraordinaire Cecil Beaton. A stint studying photography at Exeter School or Art followed, then a formulative freelance role as assistant to another Vogue great, Richard Avedon.
Walker has established himself at the cutting edge of fashion photography when he won The Independent Young Photographer of the Year Awards; after an intital period of documentary and portrait work for UK broadsheets he broadened his editorial repertoire with British Vogue, W and Harper’s Bazaar.
He currently shoots for Italian and British Vogue and Vanity Fair, and works for clients such as Comme des Garçons and Gap for creative advertising campaigns.

Now firmly established at the cutting edge of fashion photography, the Design Museum exhibition showcases the magical delights of Walker’s work, and offers a glittering glimpse to his methods and thought processes behind the wonderland of imagery.
While most fashion shoots might be concerned with make-up, clothing and props, Walker’s inventions require the inventions of model makers, small creatures and surreal landscapes to conjure the surrealist dreamscape works. All the works are ingeniously composed, and in many cases the subject is not the focal point of the picture. The images have a sense of renaissance opulence with a modernist palette, and we see echoes of surrealism throughout.

The influence of childhood heroes C.S Lewis and Lewis Carroll is clear throughout the show, with a hint of myths and legends to spice things up. Juliet Bewicke, Horse in House and Lily Cole and Spiral Staircase could almost be illustrations for the books of Walker’s childhood authors, whilst candy hues and giant props bring Alice in Wonderland to the fashion world.

Surrealism is a recurring theme -  Coco Roche in Cloud Room smacks of Magritte and Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange -  and with balloons, pastel birds, illuminated dresses and giant gloves there is an air of pantomine theatrics to Walker, and more than a hint of a kleptomania.

The ingenuity here is the thinking not only outside the box, but inside the house, over the horse and in the field with the flat surfaced mirrored swans. Nothing is impossible, and the pages of Vogue even come to life with a model stepping out of the front page. From real rose wallpaper to illuminated dresses suspended in a tree, the beauty of these pieces is breathtaking and incredibly inventive. Texture and play are central characters starring alongside the models, with an over riding feeling of an English Garden party…on acid.

An endearing part of the show is a wonderful array of sketchbooks and works in progress, deconstructing the finished pieces in display; when a series of Persian cats are painted pastel, it’s great to know the rationale behind it.  A behind- the -scenes look allows the understanding that magical work such as Walker’s comes from a human being who roughly draws his ideas and scrapbooks images -  just like you and I doodle and tear images from magazines.

However bizarre, this is beautiful, ethereal work - romantic, surreal, eclectic and colourful, if Baroque met psychedellic this would be the love child. Do not miss this.

Jo Gifford

Tim Walker Pictures at the Design Museum, Shad Thames, London,  SE1 2YD, until 28th September. Late night opening Friday 11th July, until 10pm. www.designmuseum.org   Advance Booking: 020 7940 8783
 

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