PROFILE
Manuel Elías is a photographer whose work explores the ephemeral yet deeply relevant nature of early memory, trauma, loss, and grief—not as endpoints, but as integral elements in life’s continuous cycle. Through his images, he shares his own process of navigating these emotions, offering a perspective that invites reflection rather than imposing answers, encouraging personal exploration through the quiet poetry found in everyday moments.
Born in Lima, Peru, in 1976, Manuel Elías first engaged with photography as a child when his mother encouraged him to document family gatherings—an early exercise in observation that would later shape his artistic approach. While studying filmmaking, cinematography, and advertising at the University of Lima, he developed a deeper connection with photography’s ability to express not just ideas but the gut impressions he absorbed from films, music, paintings, poetry, and literature.
Elías’ practice is intuitive, rooted in an impressionistic aesthetic that embraces the interplay of light, color, and atmosphere. Through his meditative gaze, his image-making is less about documenting reality and more about evoking how moments are tinged with the bittersweet essence of fragility.
Currently, he works as a photographer at the United Nations Headquarters, where his ability to capture nuanced emotion and fleeting moments extends into storytelling, offering deeper insight into the realms of international diplomacy and humanitarian affairs.
email: info [at] meliasphoto [dot] com.
Recent group exhibitions
2024
National Competition (2024)
Soho Photo Gallery
New York, NY - US
New York State of Mind.
The Street Soup Art Gallery
Milan - Italy
Cinematic
The Curated Fridge Project.
Spring 2024
Somerville, MA - US
2023
Currents.
Ogden Museum of Southern Art
PhotoNOLA Festival
New Orleans, LA - US
The Curated Fridge Project.
Culture Lab LIC
LIC, NY - US
The Curated Fridge Project
Summer 2023 edition
Somerville, MA - US
24 Scatti bike
Museo Archeologico e di Arte Contemporanea
Brindisi - Italy
24 Scatti bike
Associazione Aeneis 2000
Bari - Italy
2022
Traces
Photo Place Gallery
Middlebury, VT - US
2021
The Curated Fridge Project
Autumn 2021 edition
Somerville, MA - US
Selected Publications
Golden Hour
Pearl Press
Online publication
US - September 2024
Siblings
L.A. Photo Curator’s
Los Angeles, US - December 2023
Docu book #17
DocuLabs.
Espoo, Finland -March 2023
Divide Magazine
Issue 5.
London - England -February 2023
Street Life 2022
Bruxelles Art Vue.
Brussels - Belgium - April 2022
STATEMENT
I remember wanting to study psychology, mostly to try to answer the questions I had about myself. I moved away from that idea because the thought of all the reading discouraged me. Ironically, I ended up reading far more than I could have ever imagined back then, driven by my curiosity and the need to make sense of my own experiences.
I also really liked art, and at one point, I became completely hooked. I was especially drawn to the Impressionists, particularly the way they moved beyond simply reproducing reality and instead interpreted it through light, color, and texture. For me, it was easy to detach from my here and now to see the world through the artist’s eyes and feel how it truly resonated. I still find that deeply moving.
I don’t remember exactly when, but my mom bribed me with one of her film point-and-shoot cameras in exchange for attending a family gathering. The heaviness of being surrounded by people engaged in their mundane small talk and repetitive conversations that I found dull was balanced by the exciting of photographing and the responsibility of documenting what was happening around me.
My photography practice is the blend of those three influences. It’s how I satisfy my curiosity about understanding my surroundings and the ideas I tend to get lost in. I’m deeply interested in giving those ideas a physical form (as images) while maintaining a poetic and timeless perspective. My work doesn’t revolve solely around specific stories; rather, it embodies a poetic meditation on the textures of my daily life.
Intuitively, everything unfolds as spontaneous first-person responses to moments that captivate me with their color, light, texture, smell, and noise – leaving me with abundant leitmotifs that later allow me to spark moods and stories, gaining meaning as they participate in my inner dialogue. Perhaps my voice sounds stronger when my work navigates between the tangible and the imaginary, exploring the emotional resonance of fleeting moments and their innate and beautiful fragility. The visual poetry that emerges from this process is what drives me to keep making photographs at this stage of my practice.