A new exhibition by celebrated English photographer Tim Walker has opened at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Tim Walker’s Fairyland: Love and Legends runs from 9 October 2026 – 7 February 2027 and “is an exploration of queer identity, community, and love through the lens of one of Britain’s foremost photographers.” Tim Walker has spent five years on this project, a new body of photographic works, 250 specially created portraits of Queer people and their allies, built through half a decade of sustained engagement with a community the photographer has described as his own.
Included is a previously unseen portrait of Kate (with a blackbird), presented in a black frame, we think taken in 2011, around the time Kate worked extensively with Tim on her stunning imagery for the Director’s Cut album.
Kate also wrote the foreword for Tim’s book Tim Walker: Story Teller, published in 2012. From Kate’s foreword: “This book is like a collection of paintings. I imagine Tim perched up in the crow’s nest of a giant toy sail-boat, sailing a painted sea, hunting for ship-wrecked dreams.”
From the exhibition website: “This exhibition takes visitors on a journey into Walker’s inner world – a vivid tapestry woven from his many inspirations and influences. Exuberant portraits and fantastical landscapes combine to create an unforgettable celebration. Walker’s creativity runs free, and his Fairyland is a place where everyone has the freedom to be themselves.“
When the above photo of Kate as ‘Marion’ with ‘Gabriel’ was exclusively published in W Magazine in 2012, Tim Walker wrote: “Kate Bush, for me, encompasses the passionate heroine with a tender ordinariness, kind of like a mother going into battle.”
Read more about the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery site here.
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