Tim Walker

I thought for a long time how to start the story about Tim Walker... When it comes to visual arts, I think that words are not enough to describe what the artist creates. Say that Tim is a visionary of our time and that what he does with fashion photography is a step ahead of others, and it is still not enough to describe the magical world that lives in his photos. Before words give way to photos that will tell the story by themselves, I want to reveal some details about his career.

His first job was sorting through Cecil Beaton's (another great fashion photographer, one of the Vogue icons) archive at the Conde Nast Library in London. After three years of schooling at Exeter College Of Arts, he received the third award as independent young photographer of the year. He leaves London and goes to New York, where he gets a job as an assistant in the legendary Richard Avedon's studio. As he himself says, he was his fourth assistant and he was not good at it, the other three assistants were much faster, more dexterous, and more technically savvy than him. He said he didn't try hard enough and that's why he got fired. His work at the studio was not at all glamorous. He had some basic duties, but that's why he was in the front row watching Richard take photos. In an interview, he told the story of how Avedon communicated with the models. "When Kristen and Nadja entered in their outfits, Avedon immediately assigned them roles and said: imagine you are crows and you are standing on a branch, there is a worm on the ground, you two are fighting for that worm." which is very direct but effective.

Kristen McMenamy & Nadja Auermann, Versace campaign 1995, Photo Richard Avedon

Although the styles of Avedon and Walker are completely different, they share a fantasy in their creation. Walker has adopted a way of communicating with the models, and he himself says that he never tells the models to pose this way or that, and he owes it all to Richard.

After returning to England, he focused on creating portraits for the British print media. In July 2005, at the age of 25, he photographed his first fashion story for Vogue. In 2008, he had his first exhibition at the Design Museum in London, and in the same year, the International Center of Photography in New York awarded him the Infinity Prize. In 2012 he received honorary membership in The Royal Photographic Society. Tim has published 8 books, and The Victoria & Albert Museum (where until March of this year there was an exhibition of his photographs called The wonderful things) and the National Portrait Gallery in London have included his photographs in their permanent exhibitions. In addition to photography, Tim also tried his hand at making short films, so his short film The lost explorer was awarded at some festivals (he won the award for The best short film at the Chicago United Film Festival), while his other project The Muse can be viewed on Youtube. He stated that he wants to deal more with film projects in the future.

However, despite all the success, it seems that the turning point in his career was in 2009, when he photographed the legendary Alexander McQueen for Vogue. The previously conceived scenario consisted of a bow made of bones and a skeleton head that McQueen was supposed to wear on his head. Alexander categorically refused. He said he liked the skull, put a cigarette in her mouth, lit another for himself and was ready to take a photo. This is how the most popular portrait of McQueen was created. Especially considering that he passed away just two weeks after that. Tim said he learned a big lesson that day, McQueen's actions and taking control taught him the importance of the subject taking the lead.

Alexander Mcqueen,Vivienne Westwood,Helena Bonham Carter,Grace Coddington,John Cleese,

Margaret Atwood,Anna Piaggi,Amy Adams,Willem Dafoe,Solange,Nicole Kidman,Gilbert & George,Anna Wintour mannequin torso Keira Knightley,Georgia May Jagger & Jerry Hal,

Thom Browne,Karlie Kloss,Timothée Chalamet,Jason Wu,Charlotte Olympia,Cillian Murphy,

Harry Styles,Bill Hader,Amanda Harlech,David Attenborough,Tilda Swinton,

Anthony Joshua Peter Blake,Margot Robbie

Tim is one of the few photographers today who avoids online promotion. His work lives on paper. He has an official website, but no social network, at least not an official one. He believes that photos should not be consumed, but felt and experienced, and not viewed all in the same format on a small screen. He says: "Instagram is scary. Be careful. 1984. ’’. Although I belong to the generation that picked up something from both worlds, I grew up reading different magazines, saving photos from them, but also downloading pictures, reading blogs, etc. I think we cannot underestimate what the internet provides for the world of photography. Although I agree with his idea that we should feel photos on paper, see them in large dimensions in galleries and at exhibitions, those small squares, in which everyone tries to fit their photos, give us space to create our own mini-exhibitions in the digital world. . Tim's photos can often be seen in Vogue, W, Love, I-d, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, etc. truth be told, Instagram is not necessary for him :) ...

He says that his sources of inspiration are no different from anyone else's. He watches television, reads books, watches National Geography, reads newspapers, observes documentaries, fashion photography, watches movies, etc. As he says: "Anything that any one of us has seen - high, low, mid - and then I mix it all up." Tim's models are mostly atypical beauties of all races, nationalities and genders. A motif that is often repeated is the ladder and stairs, an object that at first glance does not seem like an important part of fashion photography, in Tim's magical world they are the leitmotif. His interpretation of Boss's Garden of Eden, Alice in Wonderland, Marie Antoinette, Brigitte Bardot and the movie "And God Made Woman" are just some of the topics that Tim covered. He does not hide his sources of inspiration, they are clearly recognizable, but he is also an inspiration to others: The Fear and Only girl in the world discreetly paid homage to Tim.

What he is interested in is encouraging us to think about the story that has only begun in the picture. His photographs do not serve ideals of beauty, they make them diverse. His fashion editorials take us far away from reality and his portraits bring us back to reality.

In the end, Tim in his own words : I find the word ‘art’ a little bit self-congratulatory and I find it uncomfortable: I’m a photographer. Art isn’t decided at the moment it’s made – a lot of people would disagree with me, but I think time decides what art is. The most unlikely things become art. For me to say, ‘This is art photography,’ I’m just not that sort of person; this is photography, this is me playing with a camera. Call it what you will but I would call it photography. I think some photographers have become art, someone like Dianne Arbus, because time has passed and there’s an emotion she’s captured as a photographer. You can call her a photographer but you can also call her an artist. But she would never have called herself an artist. Avedon would never have called himself an artist.

As adults, time is lost. We're all so busy and everything is accelerated. What a child has is a lot of time to wander and daydream. That's what I did as a child.

When you work as a photographer you’re working more with a mood and with a suggestion of something that enables the viewer to be able to put themselves in to the picture and imagine themselves in that situation: that’s what I think the human element in still photography is. With film you have to be a storyteller and not stray from the story; you have to be very, very specific – that’s what that film is about.

They’re all dreams: every picture is a fantasy. Not so much the portraiture, but the set pieces definitely are fantasies and I think that the model or the sitter in a picture is the window for the viewer – for any person – to be a part of that fantasy. It’s me asking them, inviting them, to enter into that, whether it’s a dark and sinister mood or a beautiful fairytale. It’s escapism – that’s what it is. I’ve always had a very strong sense of entertainment and the need to entertain visually; I find a lot of photography, a lot of visual media, uninclusive because it’s not as obviously entertaining as these pictures are.

Fantasy isn’t something I put into the pictures; I don’t try and inject them with a sense of play. But it’s about being an honest photographer; a photograph is as much of a mirror of the photographer as it is the subject. A lot of links and inspiration come from my childhood and my reluctance to give it up. You lose a lot as you mature, but if you lose it completely you couldn’t possibly be a photographer – you need that sense of curiosity.

Your aim as a photographer is to get a picture of that person that means something. Portraits aren’t fantasies; they need to tell a truth. When I’m commissioned to do a portrait of someone I do a lot of research about that person; who they are, what they represent, what I am attracted to about that person. When you’re taking a portrait of someone you’re dabbling with their identity – it’s not like a fantasy – and I think that’s a very tender, vulnerable thing. It’s a fragile thing, you have to collaborate with that person.

The secret of fashion photography to me is creating an unaffected, genuine response to a magical setting. 50% of the backdrops I use are scouted and they’re real places picked for their beauty and they are magical to us. Fashion is the dream department of photography and I’ve always been a daydreamer. The ideas for all my photographs come from any number of places, a film, a book I’m reading, the story someone tells me. I take a loads of visual references that come for me in just about anywhere and I put them into these scrapbooks and I’ve got all hundreds of these scrapbooks now.

My mum is a cook so she’s always talking about ingredients and the importance of each ingredient. It is precisely the same for me, photography needs the people I work with ,they are ingredients: the background, the set designer, the costumes, the fashion, the hair, the makeup they’re all ingredients that you pull on, in fact you know the scrapbook is for me as a cupboard full of ingredients .

Long live Tim ❤️ !