Tim Walker Shoots Louis Vuitton Men Spring 2021 Campaign

A$AP Nast, Bloody Osiris, Felix Cheong-Macleod, Ottawa Kwami and Yves Tumor front the Louis Vuitton Men’s Spring 2021 campaign styled by Ib Kamara. Tim Walker — the master of fantasy photography — is behind the lens.

Walker appeared in a superb October 2020 New York Times article: Can Fashion Photography Survive the Pandemic? Other top-tier photographers interviewed include Glen Luchford, Quil Lemons, Shaniqwa Jarvis and Sølve Sundsbø. There’s additional commentary about well-established photographers not interviewed.

Tim Walker, famous for fantastical, often surreal images — a girl in a ball gown in a field, surrounded by paper birds; a model on the edge of a landing U.F.O. — said that he currently felt “uncomfortable making fashion pictures, in the traditional sense.”

He recalled that in the past, when working with magazines, “I was more looking at the shape of the dress and what it could give my fantasy. I didn’t question how it was made; I didn’t question how expensive it was. And I just find now I feel uncomfortable glorifying that type of thing.”

His fashion work is on pause, he said, adding that even before the pandemic, budgets for shoots had shrunk by about eight times, as brands and publications tried to churn out more and more content. Everything was rushed.

“What you’re left with are magazines that are full, 90 percent, with commercial, relentless, accelerated photography,” said Mr. Walker. “It just doesn’t resonate or mean anything.”