About me

Photo. Ilia Torlin

Hi there. I’m glad you found time to drop in.

I’m a programmer and a part-time photographer with a lifelong passion for travel, currently living in Sydney, Australia, though I was born in Moscow in Russia.

My interest in photography started in childhood. I still remember the fascination of printing photos for the first time with my grandad at the age of 9. At the age of 11 or 12 I got my first camera as a present, and from then on the bathroom in our tiny flat became a dark room almost permanently, while our windows were almost constantly occupied by drying prints.

During my university years, I discovered my next passion: programming. I forgot about everything else in my life, including my family (I had just gotten married), and spent all my nights in the university data centre. In the future, when photography became digital, this proved unexpectedly helpful.

Finally, when I moved from the iron-curtained Soviet Union to Australia, it became apparent that the world is a really fascinating place. Travel is somewhat more than just a passion for me. It is a sort of addiction. It is always difficult to choose where to go next. I know that for some people, travel is like a sport. The goal is to visit every country or to collect the most famous landmarks in the world in the shortest possible time. It has never been like that for me. I have to ‘fall in love’ with the place I am planning to go next. Selecting a destination is always a very slow and painful process, and when chosen, I try to take in every bit of available information (which unfortunately sometimes means I need to rethink and start the process all over again).

Along with my addiction to travel, my love for photography came back. Initially, I photographed mainly for myself. Photos allowed me to preserve my impression of a place and the way I understood it at the time. Later, when I looked back at them, they would bring back memories of small otherwise forgotten events and recall the feeling of being there.

Now, my focus has shifted to photographing for a wider audience. Through my photos, I try to capture the essence of a place and hope to be able to convey the experience of being there to you.


Photo. Ilia Torlin

You can see some of the publications in which my photos have appeared here.

If you would like to purchase/license (or otherwise use) any of my photos or hire my services, I would be very happy to hear from you. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch on the Contact page. I am of course also always glad to have any comments or suggestions.

Some of my photos are available for purchase via the following stock agencies: