The National Portrait Gallery in London will present a major new exhibition by celebrated fashion photographer Tim Walker this fall, bringing together approximately 250 newly commissioned portraits that celebrate LGBTQ+ artists, activists, performers, and community leaders.
Opening October 9th and running through February 7, 2027, “Tim Walker's Fairyland: Love and Legends” is Walker’s largest museum exhibition to date and marks a significant new chapter in the photographer’s career. Best known for his fantastical, meticulously staged fashion editorials, Walker turns his lens toward more than five decades of queer history and culture, creating an ambitious series of portraits that blend theatricality with deeply personal storytelling.
The exhibition features portraits of sitters spanning generations and disciplines, from artists, writers, musicians, and actors to healthcare workers, activists, and community organizers. Among those featured are filmmaker Isaac Julien, actor Ian McKellen, actress Miriam Margolyes, singer Chappell Roan, as well as drag performers, and figures whose contributions to LGBTQ+ communities have often taken place outside the spotlight.
Rather than presenting a conventional survey of portraiture, “Fairyland” draws inspiration from folklore, mythology, and fantasy—visual languages long embraced within queer culture as strategies for self-invention and resistance. Walker collaborated closely with each sitter to develop elaborate settings and narratives, resulting in portraits that intertwine personal histories with imagined worlds. The exhibition also incorporates costumes, props, handwritten notes, and behind-the-scenes materials that reveal the creative process behind the photographs.
Walker, whose photographs have appeared regularly in British Vogue, Vogue Italia, W, and other international fashion publications, has become known for constructing dreamlike tableaux that blur the boundaries between fashion photography and fine art. While fantasy has long defined his practice, “Fairyland” represents one of his most overtly personal projects, foregrounding the lives and experiences of LGBTQ+ communities through newly commissioned portraiture.
The exhibition continues the National Portrait Gallery’s recent emphasis on contemporary portrait commissions while expanding its exploration of identity and representation. Alongside the photographs, visitors will encounter archival materials and interpretive displays tracing the histories, relationships, and cultural contributions of Walker’s sitters, positioning portraiture as both a record of individual lives and a collective history.
