Prior to the photographer’s career-spanning exhibition Tim Walker: Wonderful Things, opening at the V&A later this month, a new monograph celebrates the darker side of the image-maker’s transporting work
Later this month, visionary photographer Tim Walker is set to stage his largest exhibition to date, the much-anticipated Tim Walker: Wonderful Things which opens at the V&A on September 21. Ahead of this, a new monograph of the photographer’s work – Walker is known for his fantastical fashion imagery – titled Tim Walker: Shoot For the Moon is being published by Thames & Hudson. (The name comes from the Norman Vincent Peale quote: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you will land among the stars.”)
A follow-up to 2012’s Story Teller, it promises to showcase a darker side to the photographer’s work: “every point must have its counterpoint, day its night, light its dark... Shoot for the Moon draws audiences close to reveal fantasy’s other, darker side,” reads the blurb. Spanning 340 pages and 238 illustrations, and containing photographs originally created for Another Man (an image from the A/W18 issue features on the cover of the book), Vogue, Vanity Fair, and others, it promises a sweeping portrait of Walker’s contemporary output.
The book acts as a companion of sorts to the V&A exhibition Tim Walker: Wonderful Things, which will feature not only photographs from Walker’s decades-long career, but ten new shoots, inspired by pieces in the V&A’s archive. “Each new shoot is a love letter to an object from the V&A collection, and an attempt to capture my encounter with the sublime,” Walker previously explained. “For me, beauty is everything. I’m interested in breaking down the boundaries that society has created, to enable more varied types of beauty and the wonderful diversity of humanity to be celebrated. Preparing for this exhibition over the past three years has pushed me into new territories, which is very exciting, and I’m at a stage in my life where I feel brave enough to do that.”
Contributions from the many stylists, hair stylists and make-up artists Walker has collaborated with throughout his career will be celebrated in the vast exhibition, including Julien d’Ys, Amanda Harlech and AnOther’s senior fashion editor-at-large Katy England. Walker has previously shot Rooney Mara for the cover of the A/W17 issue of AnOther alongside fashion director Katie Shillingford, and the covers of Another Man A/W18 and A/W17 with England.
This Thursday, fans will have the opportunity to meet Walker at London’s Dover Street Market. To coincide with the release of Shoot for the Moon, he will be signing copies of the book, from 5–7pm, alongside an installation by Andy Hillman.
Shoot for the Moon, published by Thames & Hudson, is out September 5, 2019.
