The evening of 27 November 1970 in London was unexpectedly mild, one of the few things that might have pleased the 150 men and women, young and old, who had gathered for a torchlit rally in Highbury Fields, and who otherwise had much to be angry about. It was the first gay rights demonstration to take place in Britain, organised at the spot where a young Liberal party activist had been arrested for what was called “loitering” and “importuning” – quaint, old-fashioned terms even then. It was, they said, a police sting, a stitch-up, and they had had enough. It was the moment, recalled activist Peter Tatchell, that “the fear that had cowed gay people into submission was gone. Instead of fear, we felt pride and defiance.” “Pride before pride” the veterans call it.

And with magical resonance, as it turns out, on 27 November 1970 – possibly around the same time that torches were lit and banners unfurled – the photographer Tim Walker was born. What happened that evening in north London is the starting point for Walker’s new and vast show at London’s National Portrait Gallery, . More than 50 years of queer culture and life in some 250 portraits of activists and allies, performers, writers and artists, and those who belong to no category.

Since 1995, Walker has been known in ’s pages for his fashion shoots, operatic in scale and ambition, but in recent times for more intimate portraits, shorn of the peripheral decoration that marked out that earlier style: fallen chandeliers, disembodied heads and papier-mâché swans. , a deeply personal meditation in pictures and words, marks another shift in Walker’s artistic focus. “I went into this project wanting to explore so many different avenues,” he says. “What does it mean to be queer today? Who are some of the key people in the community and how are they connected? Every picture I make is a journey of some sort, an odyssey. I always go into a project with a very loose rein on it – I don’t know what the conclusion is going to be… Now, I realise that I’ve never been on a more personal journey than this.”

Peter Tatchell is here, so too others from those far-off days, elevated to Walker’s pantheon, a “queer-istocracy” as he calls it, of pioneers. “They were literally putting their lives at stake. They could have been imprisoned or beaten up… History will remember them,” says Walker. Established figures of queer culture are also represented: actors Sir Ian McKellen and Tilda Swinton; writers Bernardine Evaristo and Sarah Waters; fashion-world luminaries Jean Paul Gaultier and Stephen Jones; and contemporary icons: Lady Gaga, Troye Sivan, Chappell Roan, Harry Styles and Miriam Margolyes. It is an extraordinary collection more than five years in the making.

“In the end, everything is about love – there’s no other conclusion I can possibly reach,” says Walker. “Love is everything. I hope the pictures help open up conversations about what love means, in all its forms.”

Tim Walker’s Fairyland: Love and Legends is at the National Portrait Gallery, WC2, from 9 October to 7 February 2027