Enter into the fantastic world of Tim Walker

Fantastic world, amazing characters, unusual angles: enter into the universe of Tim Walker, at Victoria&Albert Museum, in London. Tim Walker: Wonderful Things is the largest exhibition of Walker’s pictures to date. It celebrates his extraordinary contribution to image-making over the last 25 years and the inspirational role that the V&A’s collection plays in his creative process. (Photo up Tim Walker ‘Karen Elson, Sgaire Wood & James Crewe’, London, 2018 (c) Tim Walker Studio)

The V&A stages largest-ever exhibition on photographer Tim Walker with over 150 new works inspired by its collection – Tim Walker: Wonderful Things.  
Galleries 38a and 38 – 21 September 2019 – 8 March 2020 – vam.ac.uk | #TimWalkerxVAM 

At the heart of the exhibition are 10 major new photographic projects, directly influenced by treasures in the V&A’s vast collection. In preparation for the exhibition, Walker scoured the V&A’s 145 public galleries, scaled the roof of the 12-acre South Kensington site, and explored the labyrinth of Victorian passages below ground level. All rare artefacts have inspired Walker’s monumental new photographs. 

At the heart of the exhibition are 10 major new photographic projects, directly influenced by treasures in the V&A’s vast collection. In preparation for the exhibition, Walker scoured the V&A’s 145 public galleries, scaled the roof of the 12-acre South Kensington site, and explored the labyrinth of Victorian passages below ground level. All rare artefacts have inspired Walker’s monumental new photographs. 

About the exhibition 

The exhibition showcases over 300 items, encompassing photographs and the V&A objects that inspired them, short films, photographic sets and props, scrapbooks and sketches. 

The exhibition begins with 100 pictures from Walker’s previous projects and extracts from his Super 8 films; these images include Edie Campbell, Lily Cole, Karen Elson and Stella Tennant and designers including Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Comme des Garçons and Rick Owens. 

The first room of the exhibition displays these inventive fashion stories alongside portraits of Sir David Attenborough, Peter Blake and David Hockney, and a constellation of performers including Riz Ahmed, Cate Blanchett, Björk, Timothée Chalamet, Beth Ditto, Daniel Day-Lewis, Claire Foy, Saoirse Ronan and Solange Knowles. One wall is devoted to the photographer’s muses.

The main exhibition space: 10 evocative room sets display Walker’s new series of photographs inspired by the V&A. Each set includes a group of V&A objects selected by Walker, displayed alongside the photographs they inspired. 

Towards the end – a film projection flickers within a vast fireplace and the walls are hung with multiple portraits inspired by Edith Sitwell’s clothing and jewellery in the V&A’s collection (Tilda Swinton is the star of shooting). 

About Tim Walker
Extravagant staging and romantic motifs characterise Tim Walker’s unmistakable style. Born in England in 1970, his interest in photography began at the Condé Nast library in London, where he worked with the Cecil Beaton archive for a year in the late 1980s. He has photographed for the British, Italian, and American editions of Vogue ever since, as well as for leading fashion and style titles such as W, i-D AnOther and LOVE Magazine. In recent years, Walker has embraced moving film.

Photography: courtesy of V&A Museum

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