Saturday 25.05.13 – Sunday 01.09.13
The Bowes Museum
Newgate, Barnard Castle, County Durham DL12 8NP
Opening Times: Open Daily: 10.00 – 5.00
Admission: £9.50 Adults , £8.50 Concessions , £5.00 Students (on production of Student Card), £14.00 6 Month Admission Pass* Click here to buy online, Free entry to holders of the Great British Heritage Pass; National Art Pass (on production of membership card), Free entry to the Friends of The Bowes Museum., Free entry to Children (under 16) , Free entry to Accompanying Carers.
For Further Information: 01833 690606/info@thebowesmuseum.org.uk
“My only rule is you must photograph what you love.” Tim Walker, interview with iD
Known though-out the photographic world as one of the most re-freshing photographers of his generation, Tim Walker’s photographs awakens the child inside us all, pushing us deep into a sublime and utterly beautiful fantasy world that he has conjured up. Tim Walker’s ambition and scale of his images is extremely impressive as none of his photographs our manipulated or altered in the slightest and all the props are hand made. He shoots every frame including his fashion and personal work on his trusty Pentax 6X7 and sticking firmly to using natural light.
His career in the fashion world started from an early. As a 19-year-old intern at Vogue, he established its Cecil Beaton archive before studying art and photography at Exeter Art College. After graduating, he worked as a photo assistant in London before moving to New York to assist Richard Avedon. He shot his first Vogue story at 25, and since then has contributed to every leading glossy magazine. Since Walker came on to the scene of fashion photography he completely changed the course of fashion photography! His shoot at the 1998 Glastonbury festival, featuring campfires, supermodels, foil capes and muddy fields, is one of the most referenced in recent fashion history.
The ‘Dreamscapes’ exhibition is an innovative and intimate exhibition of photographs by Tim Walker, revealing how this leading fashion photographer is a significant artist with roots in traditions of English landscape painting. For Walker, this is a welcome change: “I was never interested in fashion when I started out. I was interested in people. Fashion photography allowed me to explore dreams and fantasy, and that’s what I love about it.”
The Bowes Museum exhibition is Curated by Greville Worthington, former Turner prize judge, who believes the photographer’s work can be read as “more than fashion”, will explore Walker’s work beyond the pages of Vogue and Vanity Fair, showing influences from British Surrealism, and a unique Neo-Romantic take on a particularly English aesthetic. The improbability of Walker’s sets in these 26 photographs fringes on Surrealism; beds float in trees, a flying saucer glides alongside a fox hunt, and giant dolls crash through landscapes filled with foreboding, where nature frightens rather than soothes. The ambition and scale of his images is especially impressive as they are not digitally manipulated; every fantastical scene is created with props. For the first time, Walker’s images will be displayed in light boxes, which give a new quality of drenched colour to the images!
The museum is putting on many events in conjunction with the exhibition. Please click here to find out about these events. Below is attached a very interesting talk with Tim Walker in conversation with Penny Martin (Editor & Chief of Gentlewomen Magazine) at the Story Teller Somerset House Exhibition which was on display last year.
Information: The Bowes Museum/ Tim Walker
