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Nikki Malvar | Editorial Travel & Lifestyle Photographer Sydney

@nikkimalvardotcom

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Places, people & the in-between. Commissions + Fine Art Prints. Creative Director @heistcreative
Field notes from a vagabond.
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Postcards from Ubud A palm-lined pathway framed by coconut trees, with two people on scooters riding toward the camera and a parked motorbike beside the path. taken in Ubud by @nikkimalvardotcom

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23 days ago

Six weeks ago (and only five posts back) I told you about a project I really wanted, before I knew how it would end. I said I was done waiting for certainty before telling the story. I promised a continuation.

Here it is: we came second. A very close second, the email said - it was kindly meant, but very sharply felt. It turns out the practice of surrender only counts when the outcome isn’t the one you wanted.

So this is me keeping my promise, sharing the story with its real ending. The grief and the weird relief that arrived too, and everything a place teaches you while you’re courting it on someone else’s behalf.

I’ve spent years only telling the stories with good endings. This one stings, and it was still worth telling. Is this growth? Swallowing my pride and telling you anyway that I’m not the winner?

To be continued - just somewhere new x A woman with long dark waves and red lipstick, wearing a deep green ribbed knit, looks down thoughtfully among rosemary plants in soft golden light. Text overlay reads: "Coming second stings." taken in Sydney, Australia by @nikkimalvardotcom

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3 months ago

Welcome to ‘In Conversation With’: a series of philosophical moving portraits of makers, artists, curators and interesting people.

In an age that wants our productivity and optimisation more than anything, where creativity is dictated first by the algorithm (and now by AI), ‘In Conversation With’ is my version of resistance.

I will take my time to learn someone’s story. I will take my time to tell it: to shoot it, cut it together with my own hands, and delight in the slow, handcrafted process of offering a piece of humanity back to the world. No, I will not go gently into that good night. This is what I do as a storyteller: I make editorial, philosophical moving portraits of people, spaces and art. Interviewing someone is a nod back to my journalism days. And this is an exercise is ‘longform’ handmade cinematic films.

We begin with Tara , Chief Escape Officer of Simpson Cottage, an 1860s convict-built sandstone cottage on the edge of the Royal National Park, and a woman who spent thirty years as the quiet one behind the scenes before learning that it’s okay to want things. Her philosophy is simple: the richest people are the ones with enough time, enough money and enough health to enjoy each of the others.

This is her story. Part one: on richness. Our full conversation spanned creativity, utility, and the philosophy of stewardship.

Stick around, there’s more of her to come x by @nikkimalvardotcom

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3 months ago

Today is a day I wish to tell you of lotuses.

The lotus is the flower that insists on blooming from the mud, and this small story is both about lotuses and not about lotuses. I’ll let your appetite for metaphor do the translating.

This one’s dedicated to @tarawinters.co and @nikitamorell_ , who, on separate occasions, both told me that lotuses meant something to them. I don’t think that was a coincidence (and neither was my instinct that they too should be friends).

There’s a part 2 of this story about the fisherman. Stay close. Filipino fisherman in a woven conical hat poling a wooden dugout canoe through a pond of pink lotus flowers, misty green mountains and palm trees behind him. Text overlay: "Lake Sebu Postcards, Part 1. taken in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato by @nikkimalvardotcom

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3 months ago

A story about a converted 1800s church in the Hawkesbury. A girls weekend and something bewildering during a lightning storm.

I still don’t have an explanation.

Swipe for the full story, and save this if you’re looking for a NSW weekend that feels like nothing else.

Ladies can you believe this was six years ago? But more importantly should we go again? @aoifemarieoconnell @christyladylaurence @alexricia 🖋️📸 Words and images by yours truly (Nikki Malvar).

#hawkesbury #sydneyweekend #visitnsw #historicstays Bright converted church kitchen with white timber walls, black pendant lights, a worn wooden island bench topped with a clam shell and native greenery, and the St John's Anglican Church enamel sign visible on the wall. Text overlay reads: "Let me show you the church I slept in once, where something happened that I can't explain. A story of one of my most memorable Airbnb stays." taken in Sydney, Australia by @nikkimalvardotcom

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3 months ago

My mind has been keeping secrets, and my notes app is my favourite confidant. But these words now wish to be expressed. (Here lie the unfiltered musings of a multidisciplinary creative.) Dark teal background with white serif text reading: Brutally honest things in my head that I'll get cancelled for. (Hence I keep my ruminations to myself, in my notes app... til now.) taken in Sydney, Australia by @nikkimalvardotcom

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3 months ago

A micro story about a tourism campaign project I really want.

I don’t know yet if we got it, and sharing this whilst still in the uncertainty is new territory for me. I’ve spent years only telling the stories that had good endings.

But I’m learning that waiting for certainty has a cost, and the expense is the story itself.

So this is me, practicing surrender to the outcome, and trusting that the work we put in was worth something regardless of what comes back.

To be continued. Sault Daylesford timber barn surrounded by rows of lavender in full bloom, with tall poplar trees and a still pond in the background under a soft overcast sky. Text overlay reads: "A couple of weeks ago, my production studio got approached to tender for a dream project." taken in Sydney, Australia by @nikkimalvardotcom

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4 months ago

March was so incredibly generous, and yet here we are nearing the end of April and I still haven’t shared anything.

Images from the best month sit in a folder, waiting. They matter too much to rush, and rushing is all there ever seems to be time for.

Some scenes with @flockhartjodi wearing @sondeflor on a rainy Daylesford morning, at the beautiful grounds of @sault_daylesford. The earth just begged us to forage.

I’ve decided I’m suspicious of anyone without whimsy.

#daylesford #cottagecore #slowliving #editorialphotography taken in Daylesford, Victoria by @nikkimalvardotcom

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5 months ago

A small reintroduction of sorts.

I’m Nikki, creative director at @heistcreative , photographer, and storyteller based in Sydney. For a decade, Heist has been the full introduction. This fledgling account is where the rest of me lives: editorial travel photography, documentary work, fine art prints, and the unpolished, unscripted side of a creative practice that was always bigger than one category. Hello, it’s nice to meet you.

#creativedirector #editorialphotography #travelphotography #documentaryphotography #storyteller Nikki Malvar smiling among lush greenery, holding a small fruit on a plant. Overlay text reads: Hello, I'm Nikki. taken in Sydney, Australia by @nikkimalvardotcom

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5 months ago

Doorways of Cartagena | Should you find yourself crushed by the weight of requiring an epic narrative to accompany anything you post, it is possible that three years has elapsed since wandering the streets of Cartagena with your best friend @hanmeagher and capturing these photos.

Cartagena’s old town is a walled colonial city of coral stone and heavy studded doors. Sometimes, bougainvillea spills from grand balconies. The doors were status symbols; the grander the door, the wealthier the family. Just outside the walls sits Getsemaní, historically where the poorer communities lived. What they lacked in resources for those grand colonial doors, they made up for entirely in colour.

The most alive thing about any walled city is always what grows just outside it. And also if it reaches the third anniversary of your travels, perhaps it’s time to walk through the doorways of sharing…

#editorialphotography #travelphotography #cartagena #doorways #condenast taken in Cartagena de Indias by @nikkimalvardotcom

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6 months ago

Last week I shared the story of Ye Gas, the T’boli chanter, across my stories.

And now I’ve just learned it’s been published by @dailytribuneph because my dad quietly pilfered it and submitted it. (Thanks Dad)

Which feels like a sign that it’s time to let this tale live on the feed for real.

I know links on Instagram aren’t really a thing (hello, link in bio), but I’m leaving it here anyway for posterity:

https://tribune.net.ph/2026/01/23/ye-gas-is-alive-and-well taken in Philippines by @nikkimalvardotcom

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8 months ago

I love an all too wordy recap, but for once, waxing poetic fails me. So here instead is one slide for each month. That’s a wrap, 2025! by @nikkimalvardotcom

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9 months ago