Photographer Cheyne Tillier-Daly on his start at STM, shooting stars in Paris and a special project in Perth

Long before he was shooting campaigns for global fashion houses and filming atop the Eiffel Tower, Cheyne Tillier-Daly was a teenager with a camera capturing Perth’s social pages.

Now, these early images are buried in The West Australian’s archives alongside STM editorial photo shoots featuring the likes of Rosie Tupper and Jessica Gomes.

“I probably have to thank STM a lot . . . I wouldn’t have the same career at all (without it),” Tillier-Daly says, in a video call reflecting on his journey from Perth to Paris.

The photographer and videographer has returned home to shoot Claremont Quarter’s Autumn Winter campaign in Pemberton, reuniting with creatives from his STM era — including expert stylist Teagan Sewell.

“One of my favourites was in the Swan Valley,” Sewell recounts. “(Cheyne and I) had this vision for horses and haystacks, so we ended up scouting locations by literally driving around and knocking on doors.

“Cheyne started chatting to someone in a cafe who happened to know the perfect property. Suddenly we were in a stranger’s ute, heading out to secure the location — and by the end of it, we were sitting around a fire pit, sharing wine with locals from the hills.”

Tillier-Daly’s entry into photography was anything but conventional. Unlike many in the industry, he didn’t grow up with a camera in hand or have a childhood dream of becoming a photographer.

Instead, he fell into it while doing a stint of work experience at an advertising agency at the same time as studying psychology.

“It wasn’t the plan at all,” he laughs.

From the moment he first picked up a camera at 19, to three months down the track working as a full-time photographer, his quick rise was nothing short of remarkable.

One moment Tillier-Daly was a teenager bringing his first DSLR to restaurant openings as the social photographer, and the next, he was shooting editorial covers for STM at a time when Western Australia had only a few outlets for fashion photography.

“I think half my (current) website for photos is actually stuff that I’ve shot for STM,” he laughs.

This early body of work created in WA served as a springboard portfolio that opened doors, eventually leading him to Paris in 2017.

Sewell wasn’t surprised when Tillier-Daly made the move: “I knew it would work,” she says.

The decision, initially intended as a short-term experiment, ended up reshaping and redirecting Tillier-Daly’s career.

“Paris is filled with some of the best photographers in the world . . . the competition is insane,” he says.

Breaking into that world wasn’t easy; the expectations were different, the hierarchy more rigid, and the perception of photographers shifted.

“In Australia you’re a technician at the same time as a photographer, you know how everything works,” he says. “In Paris they see themselves more as an artist with a vision.”

Adapting to that environment pushed Tillier-Daly in an unexpected new direction.

While assisting established photographers, he began experimenting with motion and the stars aligned when an editor dropped out of a music video project, prompting a need to teach himself how to edit. The result gained traction and the work quickly shifted.

“I started to only receive requests for video work instead of photo,” he says.

That pivot opened new doors as his career expanded beyond still images into a hybrid creative space — one that now defines his practice.

Tillier-Daly has built a repertoire like no other: shooting on mountains in Switzerland, in Austrian palaces, on islands off the Sicilian coast, and working with Natalie Portman, Rita Ora, Usher, Zendaya, Emma Stone, Monica Bellucci, Karol G, Milly Alcock, Tahar Rahim and Perth’s own Troye Sivan.

Returning to WA, the evolution is evident in his latest work. On the Claremont Quarter campaign, Tillier-Daly shot both stills and video which is something he never did in his early STM days.

The campaign itself — a road trip narrative set against the natural beauty of the South West — feels fitting, reflecting not just a seasonal fashion story but a broader sense of movement and return.

Perth will always remain an important anchor for the creative.

He returns regularly to spend time with family and, increasingly, to work — drawn by what he sees as a growing creative future in WA with the recent establishment of ScreenWest’s Perth Film Studios in Malaga.

“Eventually I want to move into feature films. That’s the end goal,” he reveals.

While Tillier-Daly’s professional journey has taken him to some of the world’s most prestigious sets and locations, the connection to where it all began remains clear. A career that started almost by accident has come full circle, right back to where it all began: in the pages of STM.

Claremont Quarter will unveil Autumn in Motion, an immersive fashion event open to the public, on Thursday 30 April outside David Jones from 6pm to 8pm.