He also worked, at various stages of his life, as an advertising copywriter, seaman, lecturer, television presenter and founder of Brummels Gallery of Photography, Australia's first dedicated photography gallery, where he established both a photographic studio and an agency dedicated to his work, published 17 photographic books, and held numerous exhibitions in Australia and overseas.
Gregarious and outspoken, Ellis was never shy of controversy; in 1968 he rode a penny-farthing bicycle along St Kilda Road in a publicity stunt in protest against Melbourne's air pollution.
[8] After founding Brummels Gallery of Photography, in 1974 Ellis went on to form Scoopix Photo Library in Prahran, which later became the exclusive Australian agent for New York's Black Star.
[10] On 14 December 1972, Ellis and deputy director Robert Ashton launched the non-profit Brummels Gallery of Photography,[2] partly funded by two Arts Council grants.
Innovations included a Polaroid party in 1978, with cameras, flash bulbs and enough film for 320 exposures supplied by the instant photography company, and champagne to loosen inhibitions as participants pinned their pictures on the wall.
[15] This period brought a reawakening[16][17] to the photographic medium as an art form not seen since the Pictorialist era,[18] and saw the National Gallery of Victoria open the first photography department in a government-run institution, under the curatorship of Jennie Boddington.