About me

My name is Max Milne. I’m a country boy living in Melbourne, Australia. A lot of what I build is there to help other people move from thought and feeling to something solid and tangible.

I’m currently building Talk. Art. Therapy., a counselling private practice. I’m PACFA registered and under supervision. Before this, I spent sixteen years as an award-winning photographer and creative director through Studio Brunswick and Max Milne Photography.

In my spare time I tinker with software — building privacy-first AI tools for clinical notes and experimenting with ethical AI use. I balance desk work through community projects: dance gatherings, morning meditation, and volunteering at a local op shop.

Background

My beginnings were with the National Gallery of Victoria as a Young Ambassador, learning to make art accessible to young people.

Then photography — fifteen years helping people tell visual stories through Max Milne Photography, working with clients from Interview Magazine to Qantas and winning awards for portraiture. I learned to notice what lives in the frame and what just outside the frame helps make it work — collaboration and patience.

From 2015 to 2020, I built Studio Brunswick — three photography studios designed for hire. Spaces where others could make their work. During those years, I toured with performance art, made short films, taught photography at Holmesglen TAFE.

Throughout, I spent time in Buddhist monasteries — twelve months total across Thailand, India, and Australia. I facilitated meditation groups at Melbourne Buddhist Centre, taught mindfulness, sat in silence. I learned to notice, to be present, to hold space.

Then my attention turned to counselling. I worked as a student counsellor at Doncaster Secondary College and Wellbeing Counsellor at CamCare, completed a Master of Counselling at Swinburne, trained in art therapy and mindfulness teaching.

Now I work at Talk. Art. Therapy., helping people build capacity for awareness — to notice patterns, to hold what’s difficult, to choose what matters.

CV →

Credentials

  • PACFA registered
  • Master of Counselling, Swinburne University, 2025
  • Adv. Dip. Transpersonal Art Therapy, Phoenix Institute, 2015
  • Mindfulness teaching certification, Insight Meditation, 2023
  • 12 months residential meditation training (Thailand, India, Australia)
  • 15 years professional photography practice
  • 4 solo exhibitions
  • 10+ group exhibitions

Awards

Photography

  • Co-winner, Faces of Sydney Festival Competition (2017)
  • Finalist, Head On Portrait Prize (2012)
  • Winner, BSG National Photographic Prize (2011)

Performance

  • Greenroom Award — Outstanding Production, Creative Agency for Audience (2012)

Places to find me

Instagram: @maxmilne
Bluesky: @maxmilne
YouTube: @maxmilne-aus
Github: @maxmilneaus