roseanneloves: Tim Walker exhibition - Somerset House

Tim Walker.

After visiting The Tim Walker exhibition at Somerset House in London, its clear to say, Tim Walker seems to be living in Alice’s wonderland, riding unicorns, old ladies in flying saucers and models becoming mechanical dolls. His mind works in wondrous ways, but no one can complain when he is photographing fashion and producing magic.

When walking round looking at the various extravagant photos it felt as if you were walking through a fairy tale, with models such as Lindsey Wixson being kicked by a giant doll and Audrey Marnay dressed as a doll playing with a mechanical man; he creates such creepy imaginative photos but you cant be frightened by them only captivated.

Walker creates a story in every picture, whether it be Helen Bonham Carter drinking a can of coke or Kirsi Phyronem wearing a red jelly mould as a hat, there’s a story there, however he still manages to capture the viewers attention and draw it towards the fashion aspect, making you stop and think and have to concentrate on the image not just walk past it or flick the page when seen in the magazines.

Printed on one of the walls in the exhibition was a quote from Walker saying, ‘I don’t want to sound mystical but sometimes when you take a picture something takes over and leads you’ Which is what must of happened when he was photographing Malgosia Bela for Nini Ricci and put her ‘under the spell of a giant skeleton.’ The photo sees Malgosia Bela being shadowed by a huge over sized skeleton; the story of the image speaks out saying, your inner body is more dominant than what you portray on the outside, hence the skeleton being bigger than the outer body in the photo, yet you still manage to be staring at her bright red dress when thinking about the background behind it.

Walker has claimed he only photographs what he loves and is not that interested in taking the photo and the lights and the gadgets, he simply holds the camera up and clicks to get a perfect picture. When at the exhibition I managed to have a brief conversation with a couple of the staff who knew their facts on Walker, they told me; Walker always uses film and never digital also never uses photoshop. His art depends on the use of imagination and the ability to create such bizarre sets, but by not using the up to date technology on his photographs, Walker manages to create magical art not just the normal art.

Walker’s work is unmistakably original and inventive, seen in the video, which accompanies the exhibition filmed by Cathrine O’Gormen, you get to see first hand how Walker works on set being involved and how he often references fairy tales to create his own mystical tales.