3. What is the work about?
Fashion into fairytales
‘…everything you see was specially constructed; the
make believe really happened’.
Reveals one mans vision has influenced contemporary
tastes in fashion, beauty, glamour & portraiture
4. Review by Hannah Duguid
✤ It’s a particularly British aesthetic, an Alice in Wonderland world, where edgier
models such as Stella Tennant and Karen Elson lark in the grounds of country
houses: a pink dress and roses could not make these girls twee. Like a fairy
tale, Walker’s imagination can be creepy - a giant doll kicks a barbed wire
fence on which a model is stuck - but it’s never frightening.
Source:http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/tim-
walker-storyteller-somerset-house-london-8221716.html#gallery
✤ Walkers imagination can be looked upon as disturbing but his innovative show
of fashion shows plain beauty. This is created through the use of dynamic
models such as Stella Tenant and Karen Elson frolicking around in pink
dresses representing a character from Walker’s photographed fairytale. His
use of composition and props are never too frightening but capture his unusual
imagination in creative ways.
5. British Journal of Photography, Sep.
2012 Issue, Page 15
Tim Walker’s photography embraces meticulous planning and the vagaries of chance to create something that is truly otherworldly and magical.
“Fashion photography is the dream department of photography” writes Tim Walker in his forthcoming book, Tim Walker: Story Teller. Even the briefest look will show how true that is in his case, with
images of beds made of bones, hats made of jelly, rooms filled with sand and disembodied heads.
Born in 1970 Walker started out at Conde Nast, Where he created the Cecil Beaton before going to study photography at Exeter Art College. A couple of years later he moved to New York to assist
Richard Avedon, and by the age of 25 had shot his first fashion editorial for his former employer. He soon became a firm favourite at Vogue, regularly working with the British, Italian and American
editions.
Walker is a storyteller in both senses of the word, creating narratives as well as making things up, but it’s the latter that is the foreground here, with his long fashion stories referenced but not slavishly
reproduced. His pared down portraits also find their place, his straight shots of young eastenders and people dressed in folk costumes suggesting the importance of clothes beyond the fashion pages. It is a
nice approach that manages to show off both the wild inventiveness and sheer consistency of Walker’s vision- as he puts it, “Once I was honest about what I found beautiful, that was when I developed my
style.”
Walker’s quotes are regularly interspersed throughout the book and, along with spreads from his scrapbooks, make for a fascinating insight into his creative process. His 2009 photograph of Alexander
McQueen “with skull and cigarette” shows various permutations tried out in test shoots and sketches, for example, as well as the favoured final version. As Walker’s comments make clear again and again,
photography is a kind of alchemy for him, and although he plans his elaborate images, he is also open to serendipity.
“Sometimes when you’re taking a picture an extraordinary sense of luck and chance takes over and propels you to make pictures that you couldn’t in your wildest dreams have imagined,” he states. “This is
the magic of Photography.”
These texts are also backed up by a foreword by Kate Bush and a thoughtful introduction by Robin Muir, one-time picture editor of British Vogue. “While fashion photography, then and now, is rooted in
commerce and consumerism- the imperative to sell products as well as dreams – a significant narrative strand has marked it out since infancy,” he writes. “The editorial spreads of the modern fashion
magazine have allowed the photographer to construct fictive worlds which, unfold, page-after-page, like series of stills from unrealised films.”
“In this respect and in particular to Walker’ mise-en-scene the roll calls is that of the film set: hair and make-up artists, fashion stylists and costume fitters, model makers, set designers, builders, producers
and painters, prop suppliers and a cast of models playing out imagined roles. At the center is the photographer as movie director, harnessing creative and technical talents to make a singular picture, a
harmonious whole.”
Tim Walker creates magical photography through rigorous planning and unpredictable
chance. A storyteller in many senses, Walker’s variety of images demonstrates the
importance of clothes beyond the fashion pages and a consistency of his vision. Quotes fill
his pages giving you a fascinating insight into his process and shows he is open to serendipity
as well as elaborate planning. Various images show tried out test shoots and sketches as well
as the final version.
6. What creative decisions do you think add or enhance
their story telling? & what are the meanings added or
enhanced?
✤ Size of book enhances the amount of detail put into
Walker’s images, i.e: props, colour, etc.
✤ “Fashion photography is the dream department of
photography”… Satin pages in book could connote that
the book is magical and therefore want it presented in
its best form
✤ The satin pages reflect on the narrative, enjoyable to
look at, as well as touch
7. How does the title of the book & image(s)
contribute to your reading of the image(s)?
✤ ‘Storyteller’ for a start communicates with the reader
that there may be some sort of children's tales present
within the book
✤ The image of Humpty Dumpty certifies that the book
will present images from children’s top novels just like
the Humpty Dumpty
✤ The title is very basic but relevant to what is present
within the book
8. What strategies or ideas do you think the photographer
applied to the sequence of the images?
✤ Storyteller includes detailed
sketches and quotes which is
included within the book to show
his process of working/ ideas
✤ Trial and error test shoots, chance
creates something more amazing
than planned out to
✤ Walker creates his own narratives
10. What is the work about?
The Photography of Nature is a retrospective of 6 of
Fontcuberta’s most well known series, spanning from
1984 to 2002. All of the projects featured in The
Photography of Nature are based on different branches
of science, ranging from space in Sputnik (1997) and
Constellations (1993) to botany in Herbarium (1984).
Fontcuberta’s work is characterised by ideas of
manipulating the truth within photography.
11. 1st Review
✤ For a number of years, Joan Fontcuberta has been tricking the
audience into believing what they are seeing. The book is a
retrospective which is divided into two sections, and presented in a
way that is reflective of Fontcuberta’s style. The work plays on the
idea of truthfulness within photography and encourages the
audience to forgo fact for fiction.
✤ The Photography of Nature and The Nature of Photography (The
Hasselblad Award 2013) by Adam Bell. Taken from Afterimage:
The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism - Jan/Feb 2014
p.36
12. REVIEW: Joan Fontcuberta – “The Photography
of Nature / The Nature of Photography” (2014)
To begin with each of Fontcuberta’s images seem to show a
typical illustration from a natural history textbook, however
after a closer look at the captions, the strangeness of the
photos starts to appear. Slowly the viewer sees his use of
manipulation and “visual deceit”. The viewer therefore
questions if he is a liar or they are gullable. By Charlie Tatum,
for ASX, March 2014
http://www.americansuburbx.com/2014/03/review-joan-
fontcuberta-photography-nature-nature-photography-2014.html
13. How does the title of the book & image(s)
contribute to your reading of the image(s)?
✤ The Photography of Nature is the title of the fictional
section of the book; it clarifies the subject matter.
✤ The title The Nature of Photography tells the reader
that this section is about the ideas and methods behind
the images.
14. What creative decisions do you think add or enhance
their story telling? & what are the meanings added or
enhanced?
The book is divided into two sections, with one half
containing fact and one half containing fiction.
In order to read the second section, the book has to be
flipped upside down.
15. What creative decisions do you think add or enhance
their story telling? & what are the meanings added or
enhanced?
✤ The half of the book showing Fontcuberta’s ideas and
processes is printed in blue ink, perhaps referencing
blueprints.
✤ The book is covered in a suede-like material, adding to
the antique feel that the book is trying to give.
16. What strategies or ideas do you think the photographer
applied to the sequence of the images?
✤ The work is presented in the form of a scientific
journal.
✤ The different projects are separated into different
chapters, each with a distinct title page.
