LONDON/ Tim Walker and his fashionable fairy tales.

EXHIBITION REVIEW

Editorial for Vogue Italia, 2007. By Tim Walker.

‘When I think about photography I think about a secret room.

Nobody knows where the room is because it’s hidden at the top of a tower

in a very old house’. Tim Walker

Somerset House in London is hosting an exhibition of one of the most influential and risk-taking photographers fashion has ever worked with. Tim Walker: Story Teller gave me the chance to peek into those secret rooms where his wildest fantasies live. Almost like a cheeky tour around the labyrinths of his mind, every corner of the exhibit surprised me with a crazier and even more challenging scene each time.

A curated selection of images taken in the last years by Walker illustrates the photographer’s latest and freshest fantasies and his inspiring muses. Queen of punk-couture Vivienne Westwood is present in an up-close, face portrait on white background, the sexy Scarlett Johansson plays to be Bette Davis in Dolce and Gabbana, and Anna Piaggi was captured by his lens earlier this year, just months before her passing away in August.

Vivienne Westwood, 2009. By Tim Walker

Scarlett Johansson as Bette Davis, in Dolce and Gabbana. By Tim Walker.

Anna Piaggi, 2012. By Tim Walker.

Although I would find it extremely hard to pick just one photograph as my favourite, if, let’s say, my life depended on it, I think I would go for that full body portrait of her. A white background enhances the colour and playfulness of her personality. A multi-layered outfit with a juxtaposition of textures in red, pink and yellow covers her graceful body, and her lips – sending a provocative imaginary kiss- are red coloured in the Geisha way. To top it up, an inverted shoe on her head, Elsa Schiaparelli style. The picture talks about her ideas and bold attitude towards fashion and life, so that Piaggi’s unique persona will never die.

Lili Donaldson and Blue Spifire, 2009. By Tim Walker.

‘Really I only photograph what I truly love’. Tim Walker

And it definitely shows. Every image has been carefully crafted; every element is in place and designed to wow! And the fascinating fact about Tim is that no matter how extravagantly big and unreal the characters in his pictures may seem, don’t doubt it -they are real. They are objects specially tailored to fit the storyteller’s fantasy. A two and a half meter doll, a gigantic skeleton, a white swan boat or a room-size plane ? Yes, all real, and can be seen at the exhibition.