MANUEL A. ELÍAS

PROFILE

Manuel Elías is a photographer whose work explores the fleeting yet deeply resonant nature of early memory, trauma, loss, and grief as integral threads in life’s continuous cycle. Through his image-making, he shares his own process of navigating these emotions, offering a perspective that invites reflection rather than imposing answers. His photographs encourage personal exploration through the quiet poetry found in everyday moments.

Born in Perú, he first picked up a camera as a child, encouraged by his mother to document family gatherings. Those moments became his first lessons in observing his immediate surroundings with intention. Later, while studying Communication Sciences at the University of Lima, that early curiosity began to deepen. Still photography started to feel less like a tool and more like a language that allowed him to express not just ideas, but the raw, instinctive impressions gathered from daily life.

Elías’ practice is intuitive, rooted in an impressionistic aesthetic that embraces the interplay of light, color, and atmosphere. Through his meditative gaze, his images are less about recording the world as it is and more about evoking how a moment feels, often tinged with the bittersweet essence of fragility. He’s drawn to quiet fragments, subtle gestures, and traces of presence because that’s how he understands the whole: through the invisible pieces that hold everything together.

Currently, he works as a photographer at the United Nations Headquarters, where his sensitivity to fleeting emotion and layered narrative extends into visual storytelling, offering a more intimate lens on the worlds of international diplomacy and humanitarian affairs.

email: info [at] meliasphoto [dot] com.