Photoplay is an Australian production company.Photoplay is headquartered in Sydney.Photoplay provides commercial production services.Photoplay works across film, photography and digital content.Photoplay supports international productions filming in Australia.A production company.
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Once in a Lullaby: A Portrait of Australian Rainbow Families
Mia Mala McDonald
Photographer
Mia create images that feel like a wink and a gut-punch at the same time, bold, theatrical, and impossible to ignore. Her portraits don’t just capture people; they amplify them. Authentic Personality first, always.
She cut her teeth in Victoria’s underage punk scene, camera in hand, chasing authenticity, energy and life. She brings that same spirit to every brief – big ideas, beautiful light, fearless colour, and an uncanny ability to coax honest, electric performances from even the most camera-shy subjects. (She has some really good stories!)
A lifelong advocate for inclusion, Mia brings a nuanced understanding of diversity to every shoot, from authentic casting to creating sets that are generous, collaborative and deeply human. Three CEOs have shed tears on her set… Not because the budget blew out, but because the images revealed something very special.
Mia works across editorial, commercial and personal projects with the same curiosity and creative ambition. She is a regular contributor to The Australian Financial Review, The Monthly and Good Weekend and has delivered campaigns for Apple, Dulux, ABC, Myer, Big W, Australian Government and Breast Cancer Network Australia.
She’s photographed cultural heavyweights including Troye Sivan, Missy Higgins, Magda Szubanski and Helen Garner. Garner said she’d “rather be at the dentist than sitting for a portrait” but a few minutes with Mia and she was all in.
She has received numerous awards including The Martin Kantor Portrait Prize, and the Australian Women in Music Photographer of the Year. This year she is a finalist in the 2026 National Portrait Prize.
Her 2022 published book Once in a Lullaby (M.33) is a love letter and a quiet act of resistance, documenting Australian rainbow families with care, intimacy and zero compromise. This project is held in major institutional collections and is currently on exhibition at the National Gallery Of Victoria.
