Wilf Elvey was born in the United Kingdom in 1931, emigrating to Australia in 1951. He worked as a photographer in Hobart in a local studio in Mathers Lane. He was appointed to Tasmania Police as a special constable on 18 April 1955, and became a constable on 4 March 1958. He was appointed police forensics photographer in 1959. In this role he attend the Campbell Street Gaol to record photographs of prisoners. He resigned from the Police Force in January 1963, but continued to work as a photographer for various other Tasmanian Government agencies, including the Department of Film Production (later Corporation), Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service and the Lands Department. Before the flooding of Lake Pedder, Wilf and fellow photographer Ray Davy were assigned to take photographs to record the area prior to the inundation. He retired in December 1994 and died on 20 August 2011.