Karen Elson and “The Giant Crocodile.” Fashion: Giles Deacon, Footprints, Brentford, 2008. © Tim Walker
Award winning fashion photographer, former assistant to Richard Avedon, and self-proclaimed fantasist, Tim Walker, may be accustomed to seeing his photos in British, Italian, and American editions of Vogue, and in the permanent collections at the Victoria & Albert Museum and the National Portrait Gallery in London. Now, he is exceptionally selling two fashion photographs at this week’s upcoming Paris Photo.
Every fall, Paris hosts the world’s biggest fine art photography fair with this year’s edition featuring 153 galleries from all around the world. Walker’s images will be sold by London-based Michael Hoppen Gallery, which has been partaking in Paris Photo for 20 years [since the fair’s inception]. Hoppen, who founded his eponymous gallery in 1992, and which includes a vast collection by photographers like Hiroshi Hamaya, Mary McCartney, Sarah Moon, and Ellen Von Unwerth, speaks to Vogue Arabia ahead of the Paris Photo showcase and shares, “Walker is someone who thinks hard, works hard, and produces extraordinary things.” He adds, “What I like about his work is that he rarely uses sex in the pictures; he uses a completely different language that is very innocent and wonderfully inventive. Walker is a storyteller and there’s something very inclusive about it [his pictures].”
Referring to the below Alexander McQueen image (2015), Hopper notes, “There’s a genuine collaborative partnership here that doesn’t try to compete with McQueen’s own creativity.” Meanwhile the above image showcasing Karen Elson (2008) is playful and Hoppen reminds that the photographer tends not to use Photoshop, “With Walker, what you see is what you get,” he says.
“Dark Angel” photographed by Tim Walker for British Vogue, March 2015. © Tim Walker
