Art/photography/fashion review: Tim Walker: Story Teller
18 October 2012 – 27 January 2013
Somerset House, Strand, London, WC2R 1LA
Somerset House – map
Review by: Alexa Williamson
Rating: ***** (out of 5)
Imagine if Lewis Carroll‘s Alice in Wonderland was real and for a couple of hours, you were Alice and could enter Wonderland and be surrounded by magical scenery and sights – from old English manors to pictures of beautiful people in extraordinary costumes and huge doll house type toys like oversized swans and bumblebees and airplanes. And, there is also lots of dreamy and inspirational writing along with all the visual things you are taking in…
Well, that is what it is like when you visit Somerset House, right now, for the exhibition Tim Walker: Story Teller. It is like you are stepping into the world of Alice in Wonderland (if that were possible) or maybe even a period piece from the Royal Opera House or a Tim Burton film (such as Beetlejuice, The Corpse Bride or Edward Scissorhands – and ironically, when you visit Tim Walker’s website, you will see that he has photographed Tim Burton and his wife, Helen Bonham Carter).
So who is Tim Walker and what’s he and this wonderful exhibition about? Walker is a photographer from London who has been taking stunning and imaginative photographs, mainly for fashion and portraiture, for over two decades, having graduated from in 1994 – and has been both a freelance photographer as well as a regular photographer for Vogue and other well-known publications. Walker now has a book out of his work, which is also entitled Tim Walker: Story Teller that incorporates the work on display here.
This exhibition is stunning and a lot of fun as Walker and Somerset House have tried to bring you into his world.
This is a world of (but not limited to):
- old stately homes and parks like Eglingham Hall and Howick Hall in Northumberland, Glemham Hall in Suffolk and Shotover Park, Oxfordshire and Stoke Park Pavilions, Northamptonshire
- beautiful models such as Stella Tennant and Lily Cole dressed in period costumes with lots of tulle and tafetta
- work by exciting and beautiful designers such as Roberto Cavalli, Jean Paul Gaultier, Vivienne Westwood and Givenchy
- portraiture of various people we have known well in the 20th and 21st centuries including Michael Palin, Anthony Hopkins, John Cleese, Ian McKellen, Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton
Walker and Somerset House do this through the works on display as well as through the words to go with it and the props and scenery that were used in the shoots – from (as mentioned above) huge pieces of airplanes or oversized creatures like swans and bumblebees to gigantic dolls.
Words from the exhibition:
“The Wilder Shores: To its earliest audience, the most magical aspect of photography was its ability to open windows onto the world:
distant landscapes, undiscovered people, savage fauna and exotic flora till then had been as remote as the stars.
A far-flung location enhances for Walker an already pre-conceived narrative: everything is contrived, nothing is real.
You try to make your own real moments. And then you go home and make sense of it all.”
Set in the lovely period building of Somerset House, with the works displayed on simple white walls and in a venue with nice wooden floors and good lighting, Tim Walker: Story Teller is a great journey into another, visual, world. While the photos seem very much like they are from another time period, the decor of Somerset House is very grounding and even though you have views of the countryside and things outside of London, you know you are still in London. And, at the same time, you also learn about the work, personality and life of an intelligent and exciting photographer as you step outside of your every day life and see things that can only be captured when one has time to develop the imagination into a physical form. A lovely – and sometimes macabre – real-life fantasy and journey, which due to its noir edge, is perfectly suited for the autumn and winter.
Further information:
Tim Walker: Story Teller (Somerset House official site)
Tim Walker (official site)
Somerset House (official site)
The London Reviewer 