Tui Caro-Lister (b. July 9, 2003, New Zealand) is a photographer whose work exists at the intersection of fantasy and documentary, shaped by a life lived across New Zealand, Los Angeles, Italy, and London. These shifting geographies have cultivated a heightened sensitivity to atmosphere, character, and the fleeting nature of human connection. Drawing from her own lived experiences, Caro-Lister approaches photography as both a form of observation and a method of personal navigation through the world.

Working primarily in high-contrast black and white, her imagery is defined by stark tonal extremes that reflect her experience with bipolar disorder—oscillating between intensity and restraint, elation and collapse, clarity and chaos. This visual language is not merely stylistic, but deeply personal, functioning as a means of externalizing internal states and giving structure to emotional volatility.

Caro-Lister’s subjects—ranging from friends and strangers to models, nightlife figures, and members of high society—are unified by her sensitivity to their performative and psychological presence. Her photographs evoke the aesthetics of graphic novels, anime, and cinematic storytelling while remaining grounded in unguarded moments of intimacy, boredom, desire, and excess. Through this balance of heightened fantasy and raw documentation, her work constructs an intimate, diaristic portrait of contemporary life—one driven by curiosity, movement, and an unrelenting pursuit of lived experience.