Nicholas Coffill

Nicholas ​‘Nick’ Coffill (b. Condobolin, New South Wales, Australia) is a narrator of social history who has used photography as a medium of story-telling for over thirty-five years.

After studying stage design at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA, Australia) in 1976, he furthered his studies in Materials Conservation at Canberra College of Advanced Education (1977−1978), before moving into exhibition design and museum planning in the 1980s. In that field, Nick Coffill worked as 

• Design Consultant at Design 2000 (Singapore, 2007- 2012), Kingsmen (Shanghai, China, 2001 – 2005), the British Science Museum (London, UK, 2001 – 2003), the Jewish History Museum (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1997 – 1999), the York Railway Museum (March-May 1998), the Earth Exchange (Sydney, Australia, 1990 – 1992), the Newcastle Museum NSW, Australia, 1986 – 1988), and the Australian National Maritime Museum;
• Museum Planner for the Qatar National Museum (2001) and the Royal Ontario Museum (Canada);
• Planning Consultant at Auckland Institute and Museum (Auckland, New Zealand, 1990 – 1993);
• Creative Director of museums at Pico, Malaysia (1993−1998);
• Director at Exhibition Design Services (Sydney, Australia, 1987 – 1988);
• Exhibitions Planner at Powerhouse Museum (1984−1986);
• Exhibitions design & conservator at HHT NSW Elizabeth Bay House (1983−1986).

Since 1992, Coffill has lived in Malaysia, Singapore, and — from the years 2010s — Cambodia. 

In 2016, he created the live performance SNAP! 150 Years of Photography in Cambodia at Bambu Stage, Siem Riep. The book that ensued, Photography in Cambodia: 1866 to the Present (2022) explores lesser-known aspects of Cambodia’s modern history through rarely or never seen before photographs retrieved from public and private archives.