Lilli Waters is an award-winning photographer, who divides her time between fine art and commercial projects. Her work explores the human condition through the feminine form – the tension between strength and vulnerability, darkness and luminosity. Her images are haunting, dramatic and evocative – story landscapes that invite the viewer to become the subject and connect with the themes explored deep within.
Lilli’s images have appeared in publications around the globe – including Jane by the Grey Attic (Aus), Vogue Living (Aus), Belle Magazine (Aus), Art Aesthetica (UK), Austrian Living (Austria), and The Opera Magazine (Germany) – as well as appeared in feature films, including Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed (USA). She has shot for a range of commercial clients, including Uniqlo, Mimco, Anna Sui, HarperCollins, Frank Green, UMENCO, Good Time Pilates, Farfetch, Deadly Ponies and Victorian Police Museum.
Her work has been exhibited to much acclaim in Italy, Germany, Japan, the UK, the USA, and Australia. She was winner of the Du Reitz Art Award (2021), and has been a finalist in the Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize (2021), Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Art (2021), Fisher’s Ghost Art Award (2020), Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize (2020), Du Reitz Art Awards (2020), Percival Photographic Art Prize (2020), National Portrait Prize (2019), Australian Photography Awards (2018) and Art Aesthetica Art Award (2018), to name a few.
Lilli is highly experienced in directing talent to create story, and has recently been extending her work into film, directing emotive short films and music videos. Her films include Summer Love for Stephanie Cherote (2020), The Driver for Jacob Cole (2019), and Utero – Other’s Dream (2018).
Lilli lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Lilli’s images have appeared in publications around the globe – including Jane by the Grey Attic (Aus), Vogue Living (Aus), Belle Magazine (Aus), Art Aesthetica (UK), Austrian Living (Austria), and The Opera Magazine (Germany) – as well as appeared in feature films, including Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed (USA). She has shot for a range of commercial clients, including Uniqlo, Mimco, Anna Sui, HarperCollins, Frank Green, UMENCO, Good Time Pilates, Farfetch, Deadly Ponies and Victorian Police Museum.
Her work has been exhibited to much acclaim in Italy, Germany, Japan, the UK, the USA, and Australia. She was winner of the Du Reitz Art Award (2021), and has been a finalist in the Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize (2021), Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Art (2021), Fisher’s Ghost Art Award (2020), Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize (2020), Du Reitz Art Awards (2020), Percival Photographic Art Prize (2020), National Portrait Prize (2019), Australian Photography Awards (2018) and Art Aesthetica Art Award (2018), to name a few.
Lilli is highly experienced in directing talent to create story, and has recently been extending her work into film, directing emotive short films and music videos. Her films include Summer Love for Stephanie Cherote (2020), The Driver for Jacob Cole (2019), and Utero – Other’s Dream (2018).
Lilli lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Selected clients
UNIQLO Mimco
Bloomberg
Frank Green
Anna Sui
Good Times Pilates
UMENCO
HarperCollins
Farfetch
Deadly Ponies
Victorian Police Museum
Awards
2021 Finalist Iris Award, Perth Centre for Photography2021 Winner Du Rietz Art Award
2021 Selected as 200 Best Ad Photographers Worldwide 2021/2022, Lurzer’s Archive
2021 Finalist Naked & Nude Art Prize
2021 Finalist x 2 Du Rietz Art Awards
2021 Finalist Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize
2021 Finalist Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Art
2020 Finalist x 3 Australian Photography Awards
2020 Honourable Mention International Photography Awards
2020 Finalist Photo Oxford Festival
2020 Finalist Fisher’s Ghost Art Award
2020 Finalist Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize
2020 Highly Commended The Mono Awards
2020 Finalist Du Rietz Art Awards
2020 Finalist Percival Photographic Portrait Prize
2020 Finalist Biennal Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize
2019 Honourable mention Budapest International Photo Awards
2019 Finalist Australian Photography Awards
2019 Finalist Now Contemporary Art Prize
2019 Finalist Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize
2019 Finalist Iris Awards, PCP
2019 Commended The Mono Awards
2019 Finalist Incinerator Art Award
2019 Highly Commended Australasia’s Top Emerging Photographers Awards
2019 Finalist National Photographic Portrait Prize
2018 Finalist Australian Photography Awards
2018 Finalist Art Aesthetica Art Award
2017 Finalist Contemporary Art Awards
2017 Finalist National Still Life Award
2017 Finalist Click 17, Brunswick St Gallery
2017 Semi-Finalist Head On Portrait Prize
2015 Semi-Finalist Head On Portrait Prize
2013 Finalist Head On Portrait Prize
2013 Highly Commended Qantas Soya Award
2012 Highly Commended, Doug Moran National Contemporary Photographic Prize
2012 Semi-Finalist x 2, Doug Moran National Contemporary Photographic Prize
2012 Highly Commended Qantas Soya Award
2011 Winner Focus Project People’s Choice
In Print Publications
2021 Pétala Magazine 2021 Normal Magazine, France
2021 Real Living Magazine, Australia
2021 JANE by the Grey Attic ~ issue 9 ‘The Blue Nights’, Australia
2021 ‘Mass Isolation Australia’ publication
Ballarat International Foto Biennale, Australia
2020 JANE by the Grey Attic ~ issue 8 ‘There were seeds inside’, Australia
2020 Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, Australia
2019 Austrian Living Magazine, Austria
2019 The Opera Magazine Vol. VIII, Germany
2019 Vogue Living Magazine, Australia
2018 Noblesse China Magazine, China
2018 Photo Essay ‘Nature and Human Beings’ Future Now, 100 Contemporary Artists, USA
2018 Real Living Magazine, Australia
2017 The Opera Magazine Vol. VI, Germany
2017 The Age, Sunday Life, Australia
2016 Australian House & Garden Magazine, Australia
2016 Art Aesthetica Magazine, UK
2015 Elle Magazine, Australia
2015 The Opera Magazine Vol. III, Germany
2014 Fine Line Magazine, USA
2013 The Modern and Contemporary Art, France
Online Publications
2021 Lobster Magazine2021 Schön! Magazine
2021 Lenscratch
2021 Contemporary Art Collectors
2021 Beware Magazine
2020 Vogue Living
2020 The Design Files
2020 Hunter & Folk
2019 Art Thy Neighbour
2019 Modern Times Journal
2019 The Age
2019 The Design Files
2018 Feature Shoot
2018 Vogue Living
2016 Juxtapoz, USA
2015 Art Aesthetica
2014 iGNANT, Germany
2014 This is Paper, Poland
2014 GUP
2014 Clik Clik, France
2012 Empty Kingdom, USA
Solo Exhibitions
2022 Orpheus: Opening 2nd - 26th February Metro Gallery, Melbourne
2020 Disenchantments of the World
Curatorial & Co. Gallery, Sydney
2020 Virtual Anthropocene: The Age of Humans Curatorial & Co. Gallery
2019 Reawaken Craig’s Royal Hotel in collaboration with the Ballarat International Foto Bienanale, VIC
2019 Untitled Metro Gallery, Melbourne
2019 Others Dream Modern Times, Melbourne
2019 Things of Fire and Ash, Remembered Victoria Police Museum, Melbourne
2018 Coral Lands Saint Cloche Gallery, Sydney
2017 Plastic Fish Junior Space, Melbourne
2015 Anja Red Gallery, Melbourne
2013 Things of Fire and Ash Victoria Police Museum, Melbourne
2012 She Raw Edmund Pearce Gallery, Melbourne
Selected Group Exhibitions
2021 Darlings Curatorial & Co. Gallery, Sydney2021 Naked & Nude Art Prize, Manning Regional Art Gallery, NSW
2021 Flora, Heritage Hill Museum and Historic Gardens, City of Greater Dandenong, VIC
2021 Art in the Plague Year UCR Arts, California Museum of Photography, USA
2021 Ilford CCP Salon, CCP, Melbourne
2020 Between Today and Tomorrow
online exhibition
2020 Darlings Curatorial & Co. Gallery, Sydney
2020 The Laneway Gallery in collaboration with Jane by the Grey Attic & Melbourne GPO
2020 Women and Photography: Ways of Seeing and Being Seen OVADA Gallery,
Photo Oxford Festival, UK
2020 Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown Arts Centre, NSW
2020 ICP Concerned: Global images for Global crisis
International Center of Photography
New York, USA
2020 Talismans, Rafts, Mementos
Modern Times, Melbourne
2020 Here With Me
Curatorial & Co. Gallery, Sydney
2020 Du Rietz Art Awards
Gympie Regional Gallery, QLD
2020 Percival Portrait Prize
Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville
2020 Loud and Luminous
Contact Sheet Gallery, Sydney
2020 These Days: Works in Isolation
Virtual Exhibition
2019 Summer Group Exhibition
Metro Gallery, Melbourne
2019 Ritual Practice
Modern Times, Melbourne
2019 Rose Rouge Kaisu
Tokyo, Japan
2019 Midyear Selection Exhibition
Metro Gallery, Melbourne
2019 Loud & Luminous
Head On Photo Festival
Contact Sheet Gallery, Sydney
2019 Chapter One with Sam I Am
Pix on Location, Sydney
2019 Winter Group Exhibition
Metro Gallery, Melbourne
2019 National Photographic Portrait Prize
National Portrait Gallery, NSW, touring Nationally
2019 Sun Celebrates Her Sun Studios, Melbourne
2019 Her Wild Dreaming
Schoolhouse Studios, Melbourne
2019 Fifty Squared Art Prize
Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne
2018 PCP Collective Perth Centre for Photography
2018 ILFORD CCP Salon
Contemporary Centre of Photography, Melbourne
2018 Summer Group Exhibition Metro Gallery, Melbourne
2018 The Luxury of Landscape
Pilazzo Pandolfini, Tuscany, Italy
2018 The Last Line of Defence
Besser Space, Melbourne
2018 Candyland for CanTeen Art Auction
NAB Graduate Fundraiser, Melbourne
2018 Hyper 222 Roslyn Gallery, Melbourne
2018 Contemporary Art Awards, Sydney
2017 STILL National Still Life Award
Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, NSW
2017 Her Way 5 Rankins Lane Gallery, Melbourne
2016 BlümchenSex Palmengarten
Frankfurt, Germany
2016 Phantom Paradise
Saint Cloche Gallery, Sydney
2015 Keeping Company: Saltwater
Manly Art Gallery, Sydney
2015 Unreal Head On Photo Festival
M2 Gallery, Sydney
2014 Head On Photo Festival, Sydney
2013 Art in Mind The Brick Lane Gallery, London
2013 Head On Photo Festival State Library of NSW