A person can tell a lot about a photograph simply by looking at its characteristics and formal elements. Composition, colouring, lines, angles and much more all play a big role in the overall effectiveness of an image, a single change to any of these elements can create a whole new effect to a shot, giving it a completely different meaning.
Tim Walker’s photograph of ’Lily and Spiral Staircase’ is one of my personal favourites and the one I have chose to analyse.
Taken in Gujarat, India in 2005 the photograph shows a young woman (Lily Cole), posing on a spiral staircase, wearing an unusual, long, blue, flowing dress; of which is draped along and over the stairs. The trail of the dress flows through the image creating a leading line, from the model in the left hand third through to the bottom corner of the right hand third. The model is placed within the golden intersection. It reminds me of a river, leading the viewer up along the garment, showing off every possible detail. Tall straight lines created by the large door placed centrally in the background also help to add atmosphere and a sense of grandness to the location where the photograph was shot. The overall feel of the photograph is very grand and elegant, reflecting the dress style.
The use of natural light seems to be apparent in a lot of Walkers work. I feel that this works extremely well in this image particularly, as the large, full length window on the left lights up the model and dress perfectly, but also adds shadows in various corners around the room, creating depth and mood within the image. There is a slight grundgey atmosphere created with the shadows and patterns on the spiral staircase, which adds a slight dissimilarity from the feminine, angelic dress. The blue colouring of the walls compliments the colour of the dress to give a cold, cool feel; again creating a watery/riverlike impression.
The negative space around the dress helps to outline its magnificence and to make the main focus of the photograph to stand out against the background and location.
Looking almost directly onto the subject helps to get a better feel of the garment, if we were to be looking either up at the model or down, I feel that it would change the whole atmosphere of the photograph, therefore making it less effective.
With Walkers work mainly produced on his Pentax 67, medium format, you can see the quality of the film imagery and muted colours created with his film choice. Tim Walker is a film based photographer and believes that by shooting film not only creates better quality photographs, but also makes the photographs real and exciting.
Even the choice of model has been carefully thought out, with the contrast of the light blues and the ginger hair. It helps the model to stand out amongst the duller colouring in the picture and attract you to the dress.
As well as being a stunning photograph, this image has a purpose; being a piece of fashion imagery, it is used to promote and advertise the clothing shown. With the photograph being published in magazines such as British Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, it was shot to evoke desire and aspiration for the product. Being a commercial advertisement for a dress, the photograph is mainly aimed at the female population, the beautiful placement and location is used to make the viewer feel like they would be like the model if they were to buy this dress.
The positioning of the garment, I feel is one of the main selling points, showing off the main assets of the clothing by draping it across the image. The unusualness of the long trail is pinpointed to attract attention, therefore creating visual appeal. Without this the image would not be as effective as a fashion advertisement, and therefore could deduct sales from the item of clothing; which is a vital job of the photograph.
I particularly love this photograph due to its sheer elegance and beautification. A lot of planning and thought has gone into every aspect of the image, which I feel has contributed to making all of its elements work well with one another. Tim Walker has produced a stunning fashion advertisement, having it been seen in many fashion magazines and publications around the world.
I am a big admirer of Tim Walker’s photographs and will use him for inspiration and research in my future work.
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