Tim Elias.
Photographer, printer, occasional writer. Based in Fitzroy, Melbourne — working across Australia and the wider Asia-Pacific.
Photographer working in the slow lane.
I shoot mostly on film, mostly on assignment, and almost always in Melbourne. My work sits somewhere between documentary and quiet portraiture — patient, available-light, a little melancholic. I look for the moment just before, and the texture of the moment just after.
I'm available for editorial commissions, weddings, brand campaigns, and longer-form architectural and documentary projects.
Work with meThe longer
version.
I grew up in Brunswick, on the inner edge of Melbourne's north, in a house that always smelled faintly of darkroom chemistry. My mother developed film in the laundry on weekends. I was the kid who carried the tripod.
At sixteen I bought a Pentax K1000 for forty dollars and lost the next two years to it — the laneways behind Smith Street, late trams, the slow city before sunrise. I studied photojournalism at RMIT and freelanced through the back half of the 2010s for The Saturday Paper, Broadsheet, and a handful of small magazines that no longer exist.
Since 2018 I've worked as a full-time independent photographer. I split my time between editorial assignments, wedding documentary work, architectural commissions for studios across Melbourne, and long-form personal projects that nobody asked for.
I still shoot mostly on film — a Leica M6, a Mamiya 7, and a tired old Hasselblad 500C — and I still print every personal frame myself in a converted bathroom in Fitzroy. I think slowness is a feature.
Twelve years, briefly.
First commission
Hired by a small inner-north magazine to shoot a story on the closing of a thirty-year-old record store. Bought a developing tank with the cheque.
Graduated, RMIT
Finished a photojournalism honours year. Final project, Last Trams, picked up by The Saturday Paper.
First solo exhibition
After Hours — a hundred-frame study of Melbourne between 1 and 5 AM, shown at Collingwood Yards over three weeks.
Moved to a studio in Fitzroy
Set up a small workspace on Brunswick Street. Built a darkroom in the back. Still there.
Architectural commissions
Began ongoing work with three Melbourne architecture studios documenting completed builds across Victoria.
Brunswick After Dark, published
A six-month editorial project on the city's quieter hours. Released as a small-run monograph and exhibited at Tinning Street.
Selected
clients.
- The Saturday Paper
- Broadsheet Media
- Frankie Magazine
- Monocle
- Architecture AU
- Aēsop
- Marriott & Co.
- City of Melbourne
- Cucina Hospitality
- Collingwood Yards
- Sibling Architecture
- Studio Esteta
What I
shoot on.
Film — Leica M6, Mamiya 7 II, Hasselblad 500C/M, Pentax 67.
Digital — Leica Q3, Fujifilm GFX 100S for commercial.
Stock — Mostly Portra 400 and TMax 400. HP5 when the light gives up.
Print — Hand-printed silver gelatin in a Fitzroy darkroom; Hahnemühle Photo Rag for digital.