TIM WALKER FOR KING!
So if you follow this blog you would know that I once wrote a post about one of my favourite designers entitled Dame Viv for Queen! Well I couldn't very well leave the queen of eccentricity without a king (*disclaimer - this obviously is not a literal observation but let us just say that if these two had got together and had babies and they grew up to follow in their parents footsteps then the world would be a much better place filled with dyed lambs dressed in crazy outfits!)
Tim Walker portrait of Vivienne Westwood
What Viv does to clothes Tim Walker does to photos and although he has been known as a fashion photographer for over 15 years now, to me he is so much more than that. There are fashion photographers out there who focus too much on the selling principle of a photo and while the clothes and composition may still come out looking stunning, Walker manages to go that step further and transport the viewer into a whole different world . “To me, a photograph is far stronger when something is suggested rather than defined. If you define it there is nowhere for your imagination to go.” There is too much emphasis these days in magazines on selling the product, pushing more and more ads and images in people's faces, that sometimes the artistry and imagination that magazines were pioneered for when they first appeared has somehow been lost. This is why when a creative mind such as Tim Walker comes along and puts his touch on an editorial spread you know that something magical is about to unfold, and suddenly an afternoon of casually flipping through a magazine turns into a wonderful adventure through the mind of a genius.
As children we have the best imaginations and to be able to reach that far back to create such whimsical sets and characters is no mean feat. It is no surprise then that Walker's work is heavily influenced by children's books, particularly Alice in Wonderland. “I think Alice In Wonderland will always run in my head: the idea of the girl who falls asleep, tumbles in to a dream world and has to find her way out. It’s the best – the trippiness and the idea of the girl as the heroine. Every girl or boy I photograph is Alice.”
