I’Anson on craft behind journey pictures

Speaking throughout a session titled Being There: A Life of Travel Photography, the celebrated Australian photographer traced his lifelong pursuit of photographs formed by his curiosity and self-discipline, providing a sensible take a look at the realities behind photographing the world with ‘intent rather than impulse’.

Over the previous 12 months alone, I’Anson stated he had undertaken 12 worldwide journeys throughout 17 international locations, spending greater than 200 days away from house and producing over 32,000 photographs – a tempo that displays what he described as an everlasting ardour for each journey and pictures.

“I photograph just about everything as a travel photographer – people, places and wildlife,” he stated, describing a follow pushed as a lot by consistency as by inspiration.

Central to his work, I’Anson defined, is an “obsession with the transformative power of light”, a precept that guides his decision-making no matter topic or vacation spot.

“Even if the subject is interesting or the landscape is amazing, if the light doesn’t complement it, I won’t shoot,” he stated, recounting experiences in Antarctica the place he as soon as stayed awake for 3 days on the trot to catch the very best window of soppy gentle round dawn and sundown, and at Victoria Falls the place he waited ‘soaked and shivering’ for 3 quarters of an hour’ for a fleeting rainbow to look.

I’Anson, who has photographed extensively throughout Antarctica, Chile, Bolivia, South of Georgia within the final 12 months and has plans to go to Kazakhstan, Zambia amongst different international locations over the following 12 months beginning with the UAE, stated journey pictures at its greatest goes past documentation. “At its most basic, it provides a visual record of places visited,” he stated. “But at its best, it gives insight into the world at large – the people who live there, familiar places seen differently, and moments that surprise, inform or intrigue.”

He additionally harassed how photographing whereas travelling is essentially totally different from travelling to {photograph}, noting that his journeys are structured round analysis, timing and preparation moderately than likelihood encounters. Before every journey, he research guidebooks, pageant calendars and visible references, pre-visualising photographs lengthy earlier than arriving on location.

“When the location is perfect and the light is right, you wait for the subject,” he stated, describing his strategy of ‘pre-visualisation’ he first realized throughout his early travels to India within the Nineteen Eighties and refined throughout a long time of economic and editorial work.

I’Anson additionally highlighted the moral dimension of his follow, emphasising respect for folks and place, and resisting staged setups in favour of statement. “I don’t set up. That’s commercial photography,” he stated. “I shoot as I see it.”

Reflecting on a profession that started with a gifted digicam at age 16 and developed by inventory pictures, publishing, assignments and main small-group photographic expeditions worldwide, I’Anson stated his objective stays unchanged: to create photographs worthy of each particular person consideration and broader narrative context.

“Ultimately, travel photography inspires,” he stated. “It takes people to places they may never visit themselves — and sometimes inspires them to want to see the world for themselves.”

The speak was a part of Xposure 2026, the tenth version of the worldwide pictures pageant being held in Sharjah from January 29 to February 4 beneath the theme “A Decade of Visual Storytelling”.