When the Sunday Times ran a profile of Margaret Atwood in early September, fans went in hard praising the accompanying portraits of the Canadian author online: “The most perfect thing I have ever seen in my life,” wrote one Twitter user, while adjectives like ‘fabulous’, ‘obsessed’ and ‘iconic’ abounded. Shot by Tim Walker—and involving an Atwood-and-an-egg situation—the photographs were naturally all those things, and more. Just two weeks later, one of Walker’s instantly memorable pictures of Atwood is already hanging in a museum, alongside portraits of Frank Ocean and David Hockney as part of his biggest exhibition yet, Wonderful Things, which opened on Saturday at the V&A in London.
“Making photographs, to me, is really a kind of dream state,” reads a text panel accompanying the new show, Walker’s third solo exhibit. Uniquely, and as if to call attention to the personal nature of Wonderful Things, Walker has written all of the panels himself, offering fans an intimate perspective on his spectacular and singular vision. The largest public display of his photographs to date, Wonderful Things presents an extensive body of work from the photographer’s magical, often other-worldly universe, showcasing highlights from the last 25 years and celebrating his close personal connection to the museum with a 10-part series produced to honour its collections.
“Fashion photography is the dream department of photography,” writes Walker on a later panel, characterising his practise. “When you’re a fashion photographer, everything is an illusion from the start. Nothing is real.” Here’s what we learned at the show about the celebrated image-maker.
Tim Walker loves the V&A
“For me, the V&A has always been a palace of dreams—it’s one of the most inspiring places in the world,” Walker gushes about the British institution. Given AAA-style entry to the museum (think 145 public galleries and a maze of underground passages) to research the new show, it’s perhaps unsurprising much of it reads as a love letter.
And the V&A loves Tim Walker
“Ladies and gentlemen, it won’t be a surprise to you that it has been an absolute delight to work with Tim Walker,” the V&A’s director, Tristram Hunt remarked at a recent preview of the exhibition, watched by Anna Wintour during a break from London Fashion Week. Susanna Brown, Curator of Photography at the V&A, meanwhile came close to tears recounting the journey between her team and Walker.
Shona Heath is an actual superstar
The set designer has been collaborating with Walker for almost 20 years—his aesthetic is intrinsically linked to her fantastic creations of epic proportions—and the partnership is keenly felt throughout Wonderful Things. Heath designed it. Look up and you’ll think you’re on set, step through and you’ll be greeted with XL-sized splashes of white paint, a room containing four different pink florals (!), and the interior of a stately home.
10 new works
Bookended by Walker’s archive and pages from a mammoth sized journal, the core of the exhibition are the images made in response to the museum’s own wonderful things: from Edith Sitwell’s gold shoes to a McQueen frock in storage and a stained glass window. “Each picture is an attempt to capture the emotion I felt on meeting these objects and the stories they conjured in my mind.”
Grayson Perry, Tilda Swinton and Lindsey Kemp are Walker’s muses
“There are certain people I want to photograph again and again. They are not necessarily conventional fashion models but are collaborators and muses who articulate my imaginings better than I ever could,” reads the text beside the ‘Wall of Muses’, where a brilliant array of images starring the artist, actor and dancer can be found; Kate Moss and Kristen McMenamy feature too.
The nude is new for Walker
Behind a pink latex curtain at the end of a bright white space, a ‘Chapel of Nudes’ is introduced. A relatively new subject for Walker, who suggests that “we are all exquisite being nude,” the room showcases several projects from the last decade inspired by Andy Warhol, Hieronmyus Bosch, Francis Bacon and John Currin.
Howard Carter inspired Wonderful Things
While it might be easy to place the show’s title on any number of things, the 15-character name is a reference to the archaeologist’s diary entry from 26th November 1922, and his discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb. “I was struck with amazement, and when Lord Carnarvon, unable to stand the suspense any longer, inquired anxiously, ‘Can you see anything?’ it was all I could do to get out the words, ‘Yes, wonderful things’” —a feeling echoed by Walker’s own research at the V&A.
Tim Walker: Wonderful Things runs through to 8 March 2020.
All images courtesy of the V&A.