We spoke to Tim Walker about his take on fairytales, set design and beauty, in celebration of Story Teller.
Tim on tangible set and prop design versus computer-generation…
I work with reality, with props, because the gesture the person gives against that prop will be real, and you’ll be able to see that. For example you can see with this girl on this horse (below), you couldn’t possibly have the model on green screen – she’s reacting to what’s around her, she’s pushing against the doors. You get a sense that not only is she giving you that gesture but she’s made an entrance – that picture to me is all about an entrance – she’s come back from battle. She couldn’t be giving you that sense of emotion if the set wasn’t really there.
Tim on fairytales…
Traditional English folk has always interested me, I love the breadth of things they deal with and the sense of story-telling. My favourite fairytale would have to be the Gingerbread Boy, the one who was made and then ran out of the oven! Or perhaps the Elves and the Shoemaker, I love the idea of the little elves making all those chic little shoes.
Tim on finding beauty in darkness…
I think there is as much beauty in darkness as there is in light. That’s life: that’s the yin and the yang, the life and death. I think as a photographer, I had to explore that. It’s part of story telling. A story can’t be that compelling unless it’s a bit dangerous. It can’t be a never-ending parade of pastel colours.
Tim on his pictures coming to life…
I think honestly, all of the Story Teller pictures were alive to me as soon as I took them. The success of each picture is that it came alive at the point I started to take it. The ‘sleeping tinfoil dragon’ image for example (below), the light in the room, the colour, the way Shona Heath had made the tinfoil, everything, to me it became an actual sleeping dragon, the scene was alive and I genuinely felt that emotion and that energy. With all the images, from the point I was looking through the viewfinder the fantasy became real. These people here, they were genuinely having a party at twilight with swans (below). Olga Shearer had just come back from battle on a blue horse.
