Rennie Ellis
| Rennie Ellis | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Reynolds Mark Ellis 11 November 1940 Melbourne, Victoria (Australia) |
| Died | 29 August 2003 (aged 63) Melbourne, Victoria |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Occupation | Photographer |
| Years active | 1969–2003 |
Reynolds Mark "Rennie" Ellis (11 November 1940 – 19 August 2003) was an Australian social and social documentary photographer who also worked, at various stages of his life, as an advertising copywriter, seaman, lecturer, and television presenter. He founded Brummels Gallery of Photography, Australia's first dedicated photography gallery, established both a photographic studio and an agency dedicated to his work, published 17 photographic books, and held numerous exhibitions in Australia and overseas. He died after suffering a cerebral haemorrhage at the age of 62.
Born in the Melbourne beach-side suburb of Brighton and educated at Brighton Grammar School, Ellis won a scholarship to Melbourne University in 1959. He left during his first year to work as an office boy at Orr Skate & Associates, a Melbourne advertising agency. He subsequently studied advertising at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, but before obtaining his diploma he spent two years travelling the world, having bought his first camera to record his travels, and worked as a seaman en route. By 1967 Ellis was creative director at Monahan Dayman Advertising in Melbourne. He was offered the position as Melbourne editor for Gareth Powell's and Jack de Lissa's Chance International magazine. He left Monahan Dayman Advertising in 1969 to become a freelance photographer.
His first exhibition and book, formed from work in Kings Cross, Sydney, followed in 1971. A year later he re-established Brummels Gallery, a commercial gallery established in the mid-1950s to exhibit contemporary Modernist Australian painting, sculpture and prints, as 'Brummels Gallery of Photography', above a restaurant of that name in Toorak Road, South Yarra, and in 1974 Ellis went on to form Scoopix Photo Library in Prahran, which later became the exclusive Australian agent for New York's Black Star photos. In 1975 he opened his studio, Rennie Ellis & Associates, at the same premises, and operated from there for the rest of his life.
Once established as a photographer, Ellis worked, exhibited and published continuously. Magazines that he contributed to were as varied as Playboy and The Bulletin; his books and exhibitions were on subjects including the beach, beer, graffiti, Australian railway stations and the Rio carnival.
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