IN THE FRAME
A captivating display of Tim Walker’s images inspired by the V&A archives
Revered for conjuring up witty dreamscapes that he captures on camera, the British fashion photographer Tim Walker has been visiting the V&A since the start of his career in the 1990s; now, he has collaborated with the museum to produce a theatrical new body of work. ‘Tim has been on an odyssey of discovery of the V&A’s past and present. He has explored beneath us in South Kensington, in the 19th-century passageways, and above us up on the roof,’ says the curator Susanna Brown. During this pilgrimage, certain objects, from a 16th-century Hindu painting to imagery of the Bayeux Tapestry, became starting points for Walker’s images. Edith Dawson’s 1885 watercolour Conservatory at Renishaw inspired a magnificent shot of Tilda Swinton at Renishaw Hall, reimagined as the late British poet Edith Sitwell (whose family still own the Derbyshire manor). Swinton is depicted dressed in jewellery and gold Mary-Jane shoes resembling Sitwell’s own, which Walker also unearthed from the V&A’s archive.
The new photographs will hang alongside a showcase of Walker’s greatest hits in gallery spaces masterminded by his long-time collaborator, the set designer Shona Heath. ‘It is a privilege to see the energy everyone puts in to make the magic happen,’ says Brown. ‘They are like an orchestra, and Tim is the most brilliant type of conductor.’ charlotte brook ‘Tim Walker: Wonderful Things’ is at the V&A (www.vam.ac.uk) from 21 September to 8 March 2020. ‘Tim Walker: Shoot for the Moon’ (£85, Thames &
Hudson) is published on 5 September.