Tim Walker photographs for the likes of Vogue, W and Vanity Fair, creating stories each more fabulous and opulent than the last. His unique vision and imagination has captivated fashion editors and the public alike – he has brought something totally unique to fashion editorials: mythology, fantasy, surrealism and a playfulness that is truly thought-provoking.
Born in England in 1970 and based in London, Tim Walker is one of the most celebrated working photographers in the fashion industry. Tim’s love of photography developed during a fateful year’s work experience at Conde Nast London where he set up the Cecil Beaton archive. The following year he went to study photography at Exeter Art College. After graduation he assisted for a while before becoming the full-time assistant of Richard Avedon in New York. His career took off when he won 3rd place in the Independent Young Photographer of the Year awards. He started working professionally for various UK newspapers, mainly doing documentary and portrait work and this opened the door to editorial work for British Vogue, W, Harpers Bazaar – which is where he was able to finally find his feet as one of the most stunning and imaginative fashion photographers working today.
Anyone with a love of fantasy, the sublime and surreal, will want to fall down the rabbit hole that is Tim Walker’s visual world. His photographs make use of lavish sets – far more reminiscent of the theatre than any typical fashion shoot – where models take part in stories that are as mystical, playful and amusing as any fairytale you read when you were younger. He specialises in juxtaposing the everyday with the ubsurd; horses and trees stand in living rooms, cars become boats, items of furniture become magically oversized and cats become multi-coloured pastal shades of pink, blue, yellow and green. Nothing is impossible; magic, myth and legend are almost tangible. That is an important part of understanding Walker’s work, that his imagination knows no bounds – his
inner child is awake, loud and clear – and every picture has the potential to surprise you more than the last. Walker’s work is typified by a certain quintessential Englishness that is clearly seen in the themes he chooses and details he places in his pictures – whether it’s the English countryside or a forest, a great old Victorian house, a hunting party, sail boats, the ballet, a romantic garden tea party, a nod to Alice in Wonderland here, a model in a bowler hat there – his photo’s ooze an upper-class, old-world Englishness. Even his photos taken abroad in India or Africa, have a certain ‘British Empire’ feel about them.
He now includes Vanity Fair and Italian Vogue amongst his clients, who also can’t resist peeking down the rabbit-hole, and once there, they never want to leave.
Please login or register to add a comment!