I must admit, despite being a fashion student, I have a poor amount of knowledge on fashion photographers. This week, we are focussing on fashion photography and being able to analyse a photograph in your own way. We started the week researching various different photographers, from Sarah Moon to Helmut Newton, but the one that stood out for me was Tim Walker. I had heard of the British fashion photographer in previous lectures and seminars, but this was the first time I truly looked into his work and I was instantly amazed. His unmistakable style, characterised by romantic motifs in a theatrical manner, really made me look at each image in awe and take a moment to say ‘wow’. No wonder his work has been used in Vogue month in month out, for over a decade.
Each image tells a story, fabricated directly from an imagination that most of us left behind in childhood. In presenting his eccentric imagination to us through each image, they somehow feel real because they have been meticulously executed. Each fantastical scene is created with suitcases filled with props, but somehow the sight seems natural, like it had just been found like that. There is a certain sense of nostalgia in his images, but also a sense of capturing something that never really existed. Walker says himself, “the point of fashion is that you take the picture you want. And fashion is the only photography that allows fantasy, and I’m a fantasist.” I think this itself explains his work perfectly, it’s still classed as fashion photography, but completely different from a shot at a catwalk or for a clothing company, it allows the brain to go wherever it wants in a beautiful theatrical way. This to me, is what fashion photography should be all about.
This is one of my favourite photographs by Tim Walker. The innovative use of scale and repetition of the huge doll about to step on supermodel Lindsay Wixson, is something I haven’t seen many photographers be able to pull off as successfully as this. I love the bright blues of the sky and the dresses, with the huge doll being used in many of Walker’s photographs. Walker has an established style and continues to one up himself in every exhibition I have researched into. So much so, I am planning to go to his exhibition at the V&A in London in the near future to see his work in person because I think it is safe to say I have a new favourite fashion photographer.
There is no wonder celebrities queue up for Tim Walker to take their photo. His impeccable surrealist style leads to photographs with ideas no one has thought of to do before. All his photographs are instantly recognisable as Tim Walker pictures, whether they feature fashion models or not. He is definitely a new favourite of mine, and I will be keeping up to date with his incredibly romantic work in the future.
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