I photograph places and the people who keep them going.

I'm Mara Ellis, a documentary and editorial photographer based in Toronto. I grew up in Halifax, studied photography in Toronto, and spent six years as a staff photographer before going independent in 2019.

Most of my commissioned work is for magazines, cultural organisations and independent brands that want pictures with a point of view. Between commissions I work on long personal projects about weather, architecture and the Canadian landscape.

I shoot digital and medium-format film, travel anywhere in Canada and the US, and am happy to work with your team on art direction from the first brief.