Tim Walker: Fashion, Fantasy and the Stories Behind the Pictures

Tim Walker: Fashion, Fantasy and the Stories Behind the Pictures. Collage of Lily Cole, Lindsey Wixson with a giant doll, Tilda Swinton, Illuminations and the Wonderful Things book cover.

Tim Walker is a British fashion and portrait photographer known for imaginative sets, unusual locations and visual storytelling. This article explores how observations, sketches and collaboration become photographs, alongside his major projects, recent work and recommended books.

I often enjoy beginning a shoot with a general idea and letting it take shape as we go. Other times, I find myself drawn to planning the details and imagining how they might come together. Either way, I like leaving room for whatever the day brings. That is part of the appeal of location shoots for me: the light can change, a place can suggest something new, or someone can take the idea somewhere I had not considered. Tim Walker’s work makes me curious about that journey, from an observation, a memory or a sketch to a photograph that may surprise even the people creating it.

That is probably what draws me most to Walker.

Of course, it is difficult not to notice the spectacle first. Tim Walker is a British fashion and portrait photographer whose work for publications including Vogue, W and Vanity Fair has become known for its imagination, elaborate sets, unusual locations and extraordinary props. Dresses glow from trees. Dolls become enormous. Familiar stories acquire unfamiliar characters.

But I keep coming back to what happens before all of that.

I love seeing how an idea begins, how Walker sketches it, researches it, shares it with collaborators and gradually gives it a world to inhabit. By the time he raises the camera, the model, clothing, location and objects no longer feel like separate ingredients assembled for a photoshoot. They feel as though they belong to the same story.

When I wrote about Norman Parkinson, part of the pleasure came from recognizing interests close to my own: location photography, travel, movement and the relationship between a person and a place. Walker inspires me differently. Parkinson makes me want to go somewhere and discover what might happen there. Walker makes me want to imagine what could happen there before I arrive.

That difference has made me reconsider how I prepare for a fashion editorial. Instead of starting with where someone will stand, what they will wear or how I will light them, perhaps the better place to begin is with a simpler question: what world am I trying to create, and why does each element belong inside it?

And no, I do not think this means my next photoshoot needs an enormous doll. At least, I hope not.

Key Takeaways

Explore the article
Beginnings · Ideas · Locations · Collaboration · Wonderful Things · Recent Work · Books · FAQ

  • Tim Walker is known for imaginative fashion and portrait photography that combines fashion, fantasy, elaborate sets, unusual locations and extraordinary props.
  • His photographs can grow from surprisingly simple starting points. Memories, objects, sketches, artworks and everyday observations have all contributed to his visual ideas.
  • Collaboration is fundamental to Walker’s work. Set designers, stylists, models and other creative partners help transform concepts into photographs.
  • Walker leaves room for discovery. Even within complex productions, his process allows people and unexpected moments to influence the finished image.
  • For photographers, the useful lesson is not to imitate Walker’s aesthetic. It is to think more deeply about why the person, clothing, location and objects belong together.

Who Is Tim Walker?

Tim Walker was born in England in 1970 and began taking photographs as a boy. Before studying photography formally, he spent a year working with the Cecil Beaton archive at the Condé Nast Library in London. Walker credits that experience with inspiring him to study photography at Exeter College of Art.

After completing his degree, Walker moved to New York and worked as a photographic assistant to Richard Avedon. He later returned to England and began establishing his own career, photographing his first story for British Vogue at the age of 25.

Tim Walker’s official biography

Tim Walker holding a lamb outdoors.

British Vogue places that first Vogue fashion story in 1995. Its archive also documents his subsequent contributions to the magazine, including the 1998 Glastonbury Festival story that became an important early collaboration with stylist Kate Phelan.

British Vogue’s Tim Walker archive

Seen chronologically, the beginning of his career is revealing. First came sustained exposure to another photographer’s archive, followed by formal photographic education, assisting one of the twentieth century’s major portrait photographers and finally the opportunity to develop his own visual language.

There is something wonderfully appropriate about that progression. Before creating his own elaborate photographic worlds, Walker spent years looking carefully at how photographs are made.

How Tim Walker Develops an Idea

One of the things I find encouraging about Walker’s photography is that extraordinary pictures do not necessarily begin with extraordinary ideas. Sometimes they begin simply by paying attention.

The Dress Lamp Tree, England, 2002

In The Dress Lamp Tree, dresses hang from the branches of a tree and glow against the darkness. The image feels strange and romantic, yet its ingredients are remarkably familiar.

Walker’s inspiration came from seeing ball dresses hanging from the ceiling of a vintage shop in Bath, where light glowed through them during winter. He then translated that observation into the photograph made at Eglingham.

The New Yorker’s account of The Dress Lamp Tree

Illuminated dresses hanging from a tree at night in Tim Walker’s Dress Lamp Tree.

That progression interests me as much as the finished photograph because nothing begins with an instruction to create something spectacular. It begins with noticing.

For photographers, that suggests better questions than simply asking what extraordinary thing can be created. What caught your attention? Why did you notice it? What else could it become?

Walker takes familiar things and changes their relationships. The transformation does the rest.

How Tim Walker Uses Location

Location is where Walker’s photography reconnects with something I admire about Norman Parkinson, although they approach it differently.

Lily Cole in Gujarat, 2005

For British Vogue in 2005, Walker photographed Lily Cole wearing a Stella McCartney gown in Gujarat, India. One of the photographs places Cole on a spiral staircase, with pale fabric descending through the architecture and gathering below. British Vogue identifies the story as part of its July 2005 archive.

British Vogue’s Tim Walker archive

Lily Cole in a pale blue Stella McCartney gown flowing down a spiral staircase in Gujarat.

The location does not function simply as an attractive background. The staircase gives the dress somewhere to travel, the dress gives the staircase another line to follow and Cole connects the two.

This is an important distinction for location photography. Finding somewhere beautiful is only the beginning. The more interesting question is why the photograph needs to happen there.

What can the clothing do in that space? What can the person do? What does the architecture contribute? If the entire photograph could move somewhere else without losing anything, perhaps the location is not doing enough.

Parkinson often allowed fashion to enter the world as he found it. Walker seems more inclined to ask what that world might become.

Drawing Before Photographing

One of Walker’s habits that fascinates me most is his use of drawings and sketches. Before something has to exist physically, it can exist on paper.

A figure can stand beside an enormous object, a room can become impossibly tall and a dress can stretch across a space. Scale, composition and relationships can be explored before anyone has to solve the practical problem of making them real.

The V&A’s documentation of Walker’s process includes preliminary sketches alongside research, behind the scenes material and final photographs.

Inside Wonderful Things at the V&A

Tim Walker photographing James Crewe wearing an enormous pink costume outdoors.

There is something liberating about sketching because a pencil does not care about logistics. Photography, on the other hand, can make us practical very quickly. Light, lenses, permits, schedules, transportation and budgets begin imposing their limits.

Sketching is valuable not because photographers need to become accomplished illustrators, but because it offers another way to think visually before practical considerations begin negotiating with the idea.

Collaboration and Building the Photograph

Eventually somebody does have to figure out how to make the drawing exist, which is where Walker’s collaborators become essential.

Creative director and set designer Shona Heath has been one of his longstanding creative partners. The V&A describes her role as translating Walker’s visions into physical sets in which the photographs can be staged.

The V&A on set design

Models also participate in developing the picture. According to the V&A, Walker communicates initial ideas through mood boards and storyboards, then allows the models to contribute as the shoot develops.

The V&A on working with models

That is an important distinction. A strong concept does not have to mean rigid control. A designer may see something in the clothing that the photographer missed. A makeup artist may introduce a detail that changes the character. A model may interpret an idea through movement or expression in a way that could never have been drawn beforehand.

The concept may begin with the photographer, but it gets more interesting when other people are allowed inside it.

That openness is something I value in my own photoshoot collaborations, where a shared idea can evolve through the people, the place and the unexpected moments along the way.

When a Giant Doll Changes the Story

One of Walker’s most recognizable visual strategies is changing the scale of something ordinary until it becomes something else entirely.

In the photograph commonly known as Giant Doll Kicks Lindsey Wixson, a huge doll towers over the model. A doll is normally controlled by a person. It can be carried, dressed, posed and abandoned. Walker reverses that relationship so the toy appears to have the power and the human becomes vulnerable.

The prop therefore does more than attract attention. It creates a situation.

That distinction suggests a useful question for any photographer: what does the prop actually do?

An enormous blue-dressed doll appears to kick Lindsey Wixson across a grassy landscape.

An object can give someone something to touch, confront, avoid, carry or react to. It can change the relationship between a person and the space around them. If removing it changes nothing about the photograph, perhaps it was only decoration.

Although I remain convinced there are easier ways to explore this idea than transporting a giant doll to a photoshoot.

Tilda Swinton and Stranger Than Paradise

For W magazine’s May 2013 story Stranger Than Paradise, Walker photographed Tilda Swinton at Las Pozas in Xilitla, Mexico. The extraordinary environment created by Edward James combines surreal concrete structures with dense vegetation, giving Walker a setting that already seems to sit somewhere between architecture and imagination.

The story drew inspiration from artists including Salvador Dalí, Giorgio de Chirico, Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington. Jacob K styled the fashion story, Jerry Stafford provided art direction and concept, and Rhea Thierstein handled set design.

W’s Stranger Than Paradise story

Tilda Swinton in a dark coat among the surreal stairways and vegetation of Las Pozas.
Tilda Swinton seated in white beneath an elaborate feathered headpiece.

Artistic references, fashion, architecture, landscape, styling and character come together without any one element having to explain the entire photograph. Yet Swinton does not disappear inside all of it.

That may be one of the greatest challenges of elaborate fashion photography. The concept can become so interesting that the person gets lost. Swinton’s stillness and composure do the opposite. She seems to inhabit the environment rather than merely pose inside it.

For the duration of the photograph, Walker’s world feels like hers.

How Much Can One Photograph Suggest?

Walker has also explored filmmaking. His first short film, The Lost Explorer, premiered at the Locarno Film Festival in 2010 and later received a Best Short Film award at the Chicago United Film Festival. His work in moving image has continued through films and music projects.

Tim Walker’s official biography

The movement between still photography and film raises an interesting question about how much a photograph actually needs to tell us.

Film can unfold through sequence. Characters can develop, events can happen and consequences can follow. A photograph gets one frame, and perhaps that limitation is part of its power.

A fashion photograph does not need to explain what happened five minutes before the shutter opened or what will happen five minutes afterward. It can leave clues. A gesture, expression, object or location can suggest that something has already happened or is about to.

The goal may not be to tell the entire story. It may be to give the viewer enough to want to imagine the rest.

Tim Walker’s 2018 Pirelli Calendar

For the 2018 Pirelli Calendar, Walker reimagined Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Duckie Thot appeared as Alice, with a cast including RuPaul, Whoopi Goldberg, Lupita Nyong’o, Naomi Campbell and others.

The production featured an all Black cast, the second such cast in the calendar’s history after Terence Donovan’s 1987 edition.

Pirelli’s 2018 calendar archive

Stylist Edward Enninful recalled receiving Walker’s sketches and visual direction as the characters and wardrobe developed.

Pirelli on Edward Enninful’s styling

Slick Woods as the Mad Hatter in a towering silver hat and yellow bow.

Walker was working with a story that millions of people already knew, which meant he could change something fundamental without losing the underlying reference. Reconsidering who inhabits Wonderland changes how we encounter a familiar cultural world.

It is a reminder that storytelling in fashion photography involves far more than sets and props. Casting, wardrobe, location, gesture and expression all contribute.

Tim Walker: Wonderful Things at the V&A

Walker’s 2019 exhibition Tim Walker: Wonderful Things at the Victoria and Albert Museum provides perhaps the clearest view of the creative process that fascinates me most.

Walker explored the V&A’s galleries, stores and conservation areas and developed ten new photographic projects inspired by objects in the museum’s collection. Those objects included stained glass, miniature paintings, jewelry, textiles and the museum’s enormous photograph of the Bayeux Tapestry.

Inside Wonderful Things at the V&A

The important distinction is that the objects became starting points rather than templates. A reference does not have to tell a photographer what the final picture should look like. It can start a chain of associations that leads somewhere unexpected.

Illuminations

For Illuminations, Walker drew inspiration from stained glass in the V&A collection. He also connected the glowing red palette to a childhood memory of red silk lampshades made by his mother and the warm light they created at home during winter.

FAD’s Wonderful Things highlights

The combination is more interesting than either reference on its own. One source comes from research and the other from memory. Neither needs to appear literally in the finished photograph, yet together they influence what it becomes.

It offers a useful way to reconsider the references we collect. Why does a particular color attract us? Why does a place feel familiar? Why did we save a certain photograph or notice a particular object?

A mood board becomes more useful when we understand why something is on it.

Sara Grace Wallerstedt in a sculptural red Moncler gown beneath glowing red arches.
Sethu Ncise in knitted medieval armor and a red cape inside a quilted tent.

Soldiers of Tomorrow

For Soldiers of Tomorrow, Walker drew inspiration from the V&A’s photograph of the Bayeux Tapestry. The production emphasized knitted, crafted, homemade and recycled materials.

The V&A on Soldiers of Tomorrow

Walker has described old ironing boards becoming shields and vacuum cleaners becoming imagined medieval instruments.

Getty’s Wonderful Things exhibition guide

The scale may be very Walker, but the underlying idea is surprisingly accessible: look again at what is already around you.

Imagination does not always require finding something extraordinary. Sometimes it requires allowing something ordinary to become something else.

Watch Tim Walker Speak About His Work

The photographs tell only part of the story. Walker is especially interesting to hear when he talks about where his ideas originate and how they change.

The strongest video companion to this retrospective is the Victoria and Albert Museum’s official Tim Walker: Wonderful Things film. The V&A followed Walker on shoots for the ten series inspired by its collection, and Walker discusses his sources of inspiration and his emotional responses to the objects and people he photographs.

Tim Walker: Wonderful Things, Victoria and Albert Museum

British Vogue also has a recorded conversation between Walker and longtime collaborator Kate Phelan in which they discuss some of their favorite shoots together.

Tim Walker and Kate Phelan at the Vogue Festival

A much more recent conversation brings together Walker, Tilda Swinton and stylist Jerry Stafford. Recorded at Eye Filmmuseum on December 6, 2025, and published on January 27, 2026, A Higher Parasol explores their relationship across photography, film, costume and set design. It also discusses a photoshoot Walker and Swinton created at her family home in Scotland.

A Higher Parasol: Tilda Swinton in Conversation with Tim Walker and Jerry Stafford

For photographers, these conversations are useful because they move beyond admiring the finished image. They give us access to the thinking, relationships and decisions surrounding it.

Preparation Without Becoming a Prisoner of the Plan

There is an apparent contradiction in Walker’s process that contains one of its most useful lessons.

For all the thought that can go into his photographs, Walker has also written about reaching a point where increasingly complicated productions became so controlled that they limited his ability to respond to unexpected moments. In his introduction to Shoot for the Moon, he describes becoming weighed down by complex plans, storyboards and logistics and wanting to rediscover the unexpected.

Walker’s Shoot for the Moon essay in British Vogue

A portrait session with Alexander McQueen provides an especially good example. Walker arrived with a specific concept involving bone themed accessories. McQueen rejected most of the proposed setup but responded to the skull and cigarettes. Walker allowed that reaction to redirect the portrait.

The White Review’s interview with Tim Walker

Alexander McQueen holding a skull with cigarettes in Tim Walker’s portrait.

That is the distinction I find useful. Developing a concept gives the shoot somewhere to begin, but it should not determine everything that follows.

A mood board should point toward a photograph without becoming a photograph that must be reproduced.

I explore some of those possibilities in Fashion Themed Photoshoots That Tell Tales, with ideas drawn from movement, nature, art and fantasy. I think of them as starting points, with room for each shoot to find its own direction.

What Is Tim Walker Working on Now?

Walker is not in a purely retrospective stage of his career. His work in 2025 and 2026 continues across fashion commissions, portraiture, collaborations and a major new body of personal work.

Chappell Roan for W Magazine

In April 2025, W published its Chappell Roan cover story photographed by Walker. The elaborate fashion portraits bring Walker’s approach to fantasy together with a performer whose own visual identity is already theatrical and character driven.

W’s Chappell Roan cover story

Chappell Roan in a colorful outfit on a blue swing surrounded by butterflies.

Tilda Swinton: Ongoing

Walker has also continued working with Tilda Swinton. For Tilda Swinton: Ongoing at Eye Filmmuseum, they conducted a photoshoot at Swinton’s family home in Scotland. Their conversation published in January 2026 discusses that work and earlier collaborations.

Watch A Higher Parasol at Eye Filmmuseum

Burberry: The Trench, Portraits of an Icon

In March 2026, Burberry released The Trench, Portraits of an Icon as part of its 170th anniversary. Walker photographed a series of black and white portraits featuring figures from film, music, sport and fashion, including Kate Moss, Teyana Taylor, Jonathan Bailey, Kendall Jenner and Jack Draper.

Burberry’s March 2026 announcement

The commission is interesting because it demonstrates another side of Walker. There is no requirement that every photograph contain an enormous constructed fantasy. Character can also come from restraint.

Tim Walker’s Fairyland: Love and Legends

A major forthcoming project is Tim Walker’s Fairyland: Love and Legends, scheduled at London’s National Portrait Gallery from October 9, 2026, through February 7, 2027.

The exhibition is set to bring together approximately 250 specially created portraits and is the result of five years of work exploring queer identity, community and love. Sitters include Ian McKellen, Chappell Roan, Isaac Julien and Miriam Margolyes.

The National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition announcement

Shona Heath is again involved, designing the exhibition, while Susanna Brown serves as curator.

The National Portrait Gallery’s Fairyland exhibition page

As of September 30, 2026, the exhibition has not yet opened. This is a point of anticipation rather than review.

A Collaboration With Pandora

In August 2026, the National Portrait Gallery and Pandora announced that a range of jewelry and charms co-created with Walker would accompany Pandora’s support of the exhibition.

The National Portrait Gallery’s Pandora announcement

It is a small but interesting example of Walker’s visual world extending beyond photography itself.

Does Tim Walker Offer Photography Workshops?

As of September 30, 2026, I could not verify a current workshop, course or masterclass taught directly by Tim Walker. I would therefore be cautious about describing him as someone who currently offers photography workshops.

There are, however, excellent institutional resources for photographers who want to study his approach.

Working with Tim Walker: Set Design

Working with Tim Walker: Models

Tim Walker’s Love Letter to the V&A

The National Portrait Gallery is also offering educational programming around Fairyland. A photography masterclass on October 10, 2026, is inspired by themes from Walker’s exhibition, but it is taught by photographer and Fairyland sitter Ajamu X, not Walker himself. The Gallery lists this session as sold out as of September 30, 2026.

The National Portrait Gallery’s Ajamu X masterclass

For photographers interested specifically in Walker’s methods, his interviews, museum films and books currently provide a better documented route into his thinking.

Books by Tim Walker

Walker’s photography is particularly well suited to books because larger pages give his photographs room to breathe and allow details to emerge that are easy to miss on a phone or social feed.

Cover of Tim Walker: Story Teller, showing a fashion figure above a broken giant egg.

Tim Walker: Story Teller

If I were recommending one Tim Walker book to accompany this retrospective, I would begin with Tim Walker: Story Teller. It offers a broad introduction to his fashion photography and portraiture while showing the scale, imagination and visual storytelling that have become closely associated with his work.

For anyone beginning to explore Walker’s photography in print, this is the book I would start with.

View Story Teller on Amazon

Blue cover of Tim Walker: Shoot for the Moon with a circular photographic window.

Tim Walker: Shoot for the Moon

Tim Walker: Shoot for the Moon explores another side of Walker’s photographic imagination and is especially relevant to his reflections on ambitious productions and the importance of remaining open to unexpected photographs.

It makes a useful companion to Story Teller for readers who want to go further into Walker’s visual language and the evolution of his work.

View Shoot for the Moon on Amazon

Pink and gold cover of Tim Walker: Wonderful Things.

Tim Walker: Wonderful Things

Tim Walker: Wonderful Things is the book I would recommend most strongly to photographers interested in Walker’s creative process. Created in connection with the Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition, it explores the research, references, sketches and collaborations surrounding the photographs.

That makes it particularly relevant to the central theme of this retrospective: how a photograph can begin long before the shutter is pressed.

View Wonderful Things on Amazon

White cover of Tim Walker’s Fairyland: Love and Legends with a floral figure and yellow spine.

Tim Walker’s Fairyland: Love and Legends

Tim Walker’s Fairyland: Love and Legends brings the collection into Walker’s current work. The forthcoming book accompanies his 2026 National Portrait Gallery exhibition and explores the five year portrait project centered on queer identity, community and love. North American distributor D.A.P. lists publication for November 3, 2026.

For readers interested in where Walker’s photography is heading now rather than only the work that established his reputation, this is the most relevant addition to the collection.

View Fairyland: Love and Legends on Amazon

What Tim Walker’s Photography Teaches Us About Storytelling

Looking at Walker’s work is not an invitation to photograph like Tim Walker. There is already someone exceptionally good at doing that. The more useful lesson is the seriousness with which he treats imagination and the willingness to follow an idea beyond its obvious first version.

That means thinking about the idea before the shot list. Why does this particular location belong in the photograph? What does the clothing contribute beyond style? Does a prop change what is happening, or is it simply decorating the frame? References can provide a point of departure without becoming instructions to imitate.

Collaboration matters just as much. A model, designer, stylist or makeup artist may see possibilities the photographer missed. The location, weather or light may introduce something nobody anticipated. A strong concept provides direction without becoming so rigid that a better photograph cannot emerge.

This is where Norman Parkinson and Tim Walker offer two very different but complementary lessons. Parkinson demonstrates the possibilities of taking fashion into the world and discovering what can happen there. Walker shows what can happen when imagination begins transforming that world before the photographer arrives. Both approaches begin with curiosity.

The next time you encounter a Walker photograph, look beyond the spectacle. Notice the relationship between the person and the place, what the clothing is doing, what the props contribute and what makes you curious about something beyond the frame. Then consider that the finished image may have begun with something remarkably ordinary: an observation, a memory, an object, a conversation or a sketch.

For photographers and other visual storytellers, there is a simple way to put that lesson into practice. Before your next project, write one sentence describing what you want the viewer to feel, wonder about or imagine. Sketch one possible frame. Choose the location because it contributes something to the idea. Give every important object a reason to be there. Share the concept with your collaborators and invite them to change it.

Then make the photograph you planned, but do not stop there. Make another that was never on the shot list. Change the movement, remove something, follow a suggestion, move somewhere unexpected or respond to what the light is doing. Build the world carefully enough to give the photograph direction, then leave enough room for it to surprise you.

You do not need enormous sets, extraordinary budgets or giant dolls to work this way. Start with one idea. Give it a world to inhabit. Then see what happens when real people step inside it.

The shutter may capture the photograph, but the story starts much earlier.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Tim Walker?

Tim Walker is a British fashion and portrait photographer born in England in 1970. His photographs have appeared in publications including Vogue, Vanity Fair, W, LOVE, Another Man and i-D.

Tim Walker’s official biography

What is Tim Walker best known for?

Walker is best known for imaginative fashion photography featuring elaborate sets, unusual locations, large props and narrative driven imagery. His official biography describes him as becoming known for lavish tableaux and ambitious shoots on location around the world.

Tim Walker’s official biography

How did Tim Walker begin his photography career?

Walker spent a year working with the Cecil Beaton archive at the Condé Nast Library before studying photography at Exeter College of Art. After completing his degree, he assisted Richard Avedon in New York and later photographed his first British Vogue fashion story at age 25.

Tim Walker’s official biography

Does Tim Walker sketch his photographs?

Yes. Preliminary drawings and sketches are documented parts of Walker’s creative process and appear in material associated with his V&A exhibition Wonderful Things.

Inside Wonderful Things at the V&A

What inspires Tim Walker?

Walker has drawn inspiration from fairy tales, art, historical objects, museum collections, memories and everyday observations. The V&A’s Wonderful Things project provides one of the clearest examples of those influences becoming new photographs.

Tim Walker’s Love Letter to the V&A

Who are some of Tim Walker’s collaborators?

Walker has longstanding creative relationships with people including set designer Shona Heath, stylist Kate Phelan and performer Tilda Swinton. His productions also involve designers, models, hair and makeup artists, set builders and other creative specialists.

The V&A on set design

Are Tim Walker’s elaborate sets physically constructed?

Yes. Physical sets and handmade props have been central to many Walker productions, particularly in his collaborations with Shona Heath. This does not establish that every element in every Walker photograph was created physically.

The V&A on set design

How does Tim Walker use storytelling in fashion photography?

Walker uses character, atmosphere and visual detail to suggest a larger story beyond the frame. The V&A also documents how models are encouraged to inhabit characters as a story develops.

The V&A on working with models

What was Tim Walker: Wonderful Things?

Tim Walker: Wonderful Things was a major exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum that opened in 2019. It included ten new photographic series influenced by objects in the V&A’s collections and explored Walker’s creative process through photographs, films, sets and installations.

The V&A’s Tim Walker exhibition archive

What is Tim Walker working on in 2026?

His 2026 work includes Burberry’s The Trench, Portraits of an Icon, continuing collaboration with Tilda Swinton and the forthcoming National Portrait Gallery exhibition Tim Walker’s Fairyland: Love and Legends.

Burberry’s March 2026 announcement

The National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition announcement

Does Tim Walker teach photography workshops?

I could not verify a current photography workshop taught directly by Walker as of September 30, 2026. Museums connected with his work do offer educational programming and extensive material about his creative process. The National Portrait Gallery’s October 10, 2026, masterclass is taught by Ajamu X and is listed as sold out as of September 30, 2026.

The National Portrait Gallery’s Ajamu X masterclass

What is Tim Walker’s Fairyland: Love and Legends?

Tim Walker’s Fairyland: Love and Legends is scheduled at the National Portrait Gallery in London from October 9, 2026, through February 7, 2027. The exhibition explores queer identity, community and love through a new body of portraits created over five years.

The National Portrait Gallery’s Fairyland exhibition page

Which Tim Walker book should I start with?

For a broad introduction to Walker’s photography, I would start with Tim Walker: Story Teller. Readers particularly interested in his research, sketching and collaborative process may prefer Tim Walker: Wonderful Things.

Tim Walker: Story Teller

View Story Teller on Amazon

Tim Walker: Wonderful Things

View Wonderful Things on Amazon

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Photoshoot Credits

Masthead collage
Editorial collage for Kisau Photography using original photographs by Tim Walker and the Wonderful Things book cover. Individual photographs and cover credits appear in the article’s Photography and Archive Credits.

Portrait of Tim Walker
Photograph by Alison Tanner. Reproduced in Yatzer’s Story Teller exhibition feature. View source.

The Dress Lamp Tree, 2002
Photograph by Tim Walker. Eglingham, England, 2002, for L’Uomo Vogue. Source: The New Yorker. View source.

Lily Cole, Gujarat, 2005
Photograph by Tim Walker. Lily Cole in Stella McCartney, Gujarat, India, British Vogue, July 2005. View source.

Tim Walker on set, Dorset, 2018
Photograph by Lucy Bridge. Tim Walker photographing James Crewe in Dorset, 2018. Source: British Vogue. View source.

Giant Doll Kicks Lindsey Wixson
Photograph by Tim Walker. Lindsey Wixson and giant doll, Eglingham Hall, 2011, published in Vogue Italia, January 2012. Source image: Yatzer. View source.

Tilda Swinton at Las Pozas, 2013
Photograph by Tim Walker for W, Stranger Than Paradise, May 2013. Tilda Swinton at Las Pozas, Mexico. Styling: Jacob K. Art direction and concept: Jerry Stafford. Set design: Rhea Thierstein. View source.

Tilda Swinton, Stranger Than Paradise
Photograph by Tim Walker for W, Stranger Than Paradise, May 2013. Styling: Jacob K. Art direction and concept: Jerry Stafford. Set design: Rhea Thierstein. View source.

Slick Woods as the Mad Hatter, 2018 Pirelli Calendar
Photograph by Tim Walker for the 2018 Pirelli Calendar. Slick Woods as the Mad Hatter. Styling: Edward Enninful. Source: Pirelli. View source.

Illuminations, 2018
Photograph © Tim Walker Studio. Sara Grace Wallerstedt in Moncler 1 Pierpaolo Piccioli, Illuminations, London, 2018. Source: FAD Magazine, Wonderful Things exhibition feature. View source.

Soldiers of Tomorrow, 2018
Photograph © Tim Walker Studio. Sethu Ncise, Soldiers of Tomorrow, London, 2018. Styling: Jack Appleyard. Knitting: Josephine Cowell. Source: Getty Museum. View source.

Alexander McQueen, 2009
Photograph by Tim Walker. Alexander McQueen, British Vogue, 2009. Source: British Vogue archive. View source.

Chappell Roan for W, 2025
Photograph by Tim Walker for W, April 2025. Styling: Genesis Webb. View source.

Tim Walker: Story Teller book cover
Tim Walker: Story Teller. Cover image supplied by Thames & Hudson. Photography by Tim Walker. ISBN 9780500293911. View source.

Tim Walker: Shoot for the Moon book cover
Tim Walker: Shoot for the Moon. Cover image supplied by Thames & Hudson. Photography by Tim Walker. ISBN 9780500545027. View source.

Tim Walker: Wonderful Things book cover
Tim Walker: Wonderful Things, V&A Publishing, 2019. Cover image supplied by Abrams. Cover illustration by Shona Heath, adapted from Henry Justice Ford, with typography by Melanie Mues. ISBN 9781851779710. View source.

Tim Walker’s Fairyland: Love and Legends book cover
Tim Walker’s Fairyland: Love and Legends, National Portrait Gallery, forthcoming 2026. Cover preview supplied by ARTBOOK / D.A.P. Photograph by Tim Walker. ISBN 9781855148604. View source.

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