Photography, in my opinion, is a challenging space for art. Nowadays, so many people call themselves “photographer” just because they spend lots of money on an expensive camera that, yes, makes what they take aesthetically nice. But being a photographer is more than that, it’s being able to see more than there is in front of you.
For Tim Walker, making photography is “a kind of dream state”. Through his exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, he’s giving us a “tour in his imagination” and proves us that as he says, “the camera is a state of mind”. The exhibition’s rooms take us on a journey from his childhood to his most recent work whilst feeling every sensations and emotions he was feeling during the production of each picture. Tim Walker, is a photographer that makes you realise that each face has an artistic potential and secret beauty. He brings you in a world that you always dreamt of but you didn’t know about . He makes you discover that some situation that look cold and scary can attract a weird space of your brain. He’s a master mind and a dream maker.
Into the Garden
“I think the point of photography is to touch people. That’s why we love it- because we are touched”. Mission accomplished, we love Walker’s work because we are touched. From the first pictures displayed in the “Into the Garden” section, we enter his brain, we enter the sources of his passion for photography, the need to “imagine something, try to build it and photograph it”. From Captain Hook to Tiger Lily, we almost feel like we grew with this kid. But who did he become? We’re getting warm up and excited to see how this work will evolve through years… and we won’t be disappointed.
Off with their head
This section would describe Walker’s work at its best : “the more impossible, the better”. Walker proves that he can go one step further from people that call themselves “photographer” just because they caught the right moment. Walker makes the right moment. He’s like a painter, he chooses his colours with precision: “The cat HAD to be lilac, the Indian elephant a particular blue, the enormous doll had to be BIGGER”, everything is calculated, it’s a mise-en-scène made to create a fairyland that we wish could exist. It’s a journey into the artists’ subconscious and we then realise it might be why sometimes, we feel uncomfortable. But weirdly, it’s an impressive and addictive feeling.
The dream department
If Walker seems to live in his own fantasy, he is not afraid to share it with the world. This particular way of thinking led him to a strong career starting from his 18th birthday, working for the Vogue archive. According to the artist : “Fashion photography is the dream department of photography. When you’re a fashion photographer, everything is an illusion from the start. Nothing is real”. In this way, he was able to mix not only his borderless creativity but also to make his name known in the artistic world. And all this, at only 18.
To see it all
This section will grow into you. Walker says, “When you have a camera, there is always a reason to go somewhere, to have an adventure. (…) It propels you to make pictures that you couldn’t have imagined in your wildest dreams. This is the magic of photography”. Trust me, after hearing these words you will be ready to catch moments, faces, or landscape on camera. You’ll feel an urge to travel around and make your friends show their true selves. You’ll want “to see it all”.
The wall of muses/ The Handshake
This part of the room is the purest one but could be seen as the most ‘bling’ one. Celebrities are all around the wall, showing that Tim Walker made it. He’s not only a crazy guy with a non-stoppable imagination but he’s also attracted by pretty and known faces. But again, even there, he surprises us with the use of so much simplicity and pureness which highlights the personality of unattainable characters whilst giving us an insight into their lives. Because at the end of the day, as Walker says “Portraiture is about exploring someone’s identity and that’s a very tender, vulnerable thing”.
7. Chapel of nudes
After showing the true beauty of celebrities, Walker goes further and shows us nude portraits. He shares his inspirations from Andy Warhol’s illustrations in the children’s book In the Bottom of My Garden to artists like Hieronymus Bosch, Francis Bacon or John Currin. But on top of that, he also shares his own message. With muses such as Beth Ditto or the model Melanie Gaydon, Walker seems to have chosen appearances going against the norms of beauty established in our society. Like he says “We are all exquisite beings nude”.
The rest of the exhibition is a tribute to the V&A. Each room recalls a specific museum’s section and the settings will leave you flabbergasted from room to room. Starting in a church and religious scenery, you will move forward to a room with moving images, green elephants and blue panthers hanging on the ceiling as well as colourful photographs inspired by the hindu culture.
Moving forward, you’ll enter a pink room with stairs, a Victorian dress standing in the middle of it to remind us that the V&A celebrates women not only from today but also from the 1800s. You’ll then discover a dark room inspired by a box that Walker loves in the museum. From there, he got inspired for a series of pictures that he shares with us through UV lightings. Following this part, you’ll be able to admire a reinterpretation of the greek statues. Walker celebrates the “living men” and the “spectrum of masculinity” as well as exploring the “taboo of homoerotic” through male nudes. Penises and strong men are thus exposed for the pleasure of some and discomfort of others…
To follow and light up the mood, the artist pays tribute to all the conservators, curators and archivists of the museum with pictures of models carrying boxes, or put into layers of bubble wraps. The photographs are exposed at the back of canvases, usually the unseen part of the object. This represents the strength of the object and the fact that without it, just like these people, it would be harder to expose the painting. He reminds us that behind every exhibition, there are people working in the shadow.
“Ends are always followed by beginning. Something new could start right here !” are the words noted on a giant book. We feel refreshed, ready to face the world, ready to push our creativity further, because if we look around us, “there are so many wonderful things”.
