Ashley Gilbertson was born in Adelaide, Australia. Aged 34 he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Technology, Adelaide. His interest in photography began while he was still a student at the university. It was while Ashley was attending school that he met his future wife Sonia Vaidya.
After graduating, Gilbertson worked first as an assistant manager in a photographic store in Adelaide, South Australia. It was during this time that he also began taking photos on a personal level as well, when he was just beginning to take interest in traveling, especially around the Indian Ocean and Indonesia. When he traveled to Sri Lanka to cover the civil war there, it was while he was making a living photographing conflict that he really began to think about his future as a photographer. In this time he also began studying Nationality and took part in writing and editing undergraduate courses at Victoria University. After completing his photography course, he joined the now well known National Geographic Traveler Magazine. It was here that he honed his skills in magazine design and began his long association with the organization.
As luck would have it, however, Nationality didn’t last very long in Australia, and Ashley Gilberton soon found himself back in the United Kingdom. After working briefly for photographer Andy Warhol, he returned to Australia and began a career as a photographer in Rome, New York and Paris. Today Ashley is a self-employed professional photographer who focuses primarily on commercial work. His clients have consistently included fashion and advertising agencies, and he has developed close relationships with many well-known personalities in the media, such as Sir Elton John, Harvey Gaudry, Katie Holmes, Dita Von Teese and John Terry.