More than any other photographer in recent decades, Tim Walker is synonymous with fairytales, fantasy, and – dare we say it – even a touch of whimsy. In the last five years, he’s turned his through-the-looking-glass lens on dozens of queer trailblazers across Britain, casting them as characters in an alternate world of total freedom. Now, the photographs are set to come together in a show at London’s National Portrait Gallery.
Walker’s relationship with queer culture goes back much further than the last half-decade, of course. Since the beginning of his career in the 1990s, he’s shot everyone from Alexander McQueen to Pet Shop Boys, to Frank Ocean, Chappell Roan, Lady Gaga, and Hunter Schafer, helping shape the visual language of LGBTQ+ culture in the 2000s, 2010s, and beyond.
More recently, for the upcoming Tim Walker’s Fairyland, he’s captured dozens of writers, performers, activists, and artists in his idiosyncratic style. The exhibition itself, curated by Susanna Brown, promises an explorations of “queer identity, community, and love” via Walker’s vivid inner world.
To accompany the show, a new book is also set to be published, featuring writing from Travis Alabanza, Shon Faye, Russell T Davies, Lisa Power, and Joelle Taylor.
Tim Walker’s Fairyland is set to open at the National Portrait Gallery in London on October 8, 2026, running through to January 2027.