Anna Wilson: Mindful Explorations
- PhotoED Magazine
- 2 days ago
- 9 min read
Updated: 10 hours ago
An interview with photoED Magazine
Anna Wilson is a Canadian photographer, educator, and artist whose eye is drawn to stories that make places meaningful, and to her camera as a tool for being more present in the world.
Anna’s approach has evolved from documenting what she sees to using photography as a conduit for deeper observation, connection, and creative expression.
She is the founder of Mindful Eye Photography, through which she leads creative experiences for women. Recently, her Alchemy of Light — Mindful Photography Journey (in partnership with National Geographic Journeys by G Adventures) took her and her group through Spain.
photoED Magazine spoke to Anna about her latest adventure.
photoED: How did you get started in photography? And what keeps you motivated and inspired to keep practising?
Anna:
I fell in love with photography in high school, when I took my first photography class. I was incredibly lucky to have an inspiring teacher, and we used Freeman Patterson’s Photography and the Art of Seeing as our textbook. Looking back, I think that may have been one of my first nudges toward the mindful approach to photography that has become such an important part of my work.
At the same time, I became completely captivated by the darkroom. There was something magical about standing in that dim red light, watching an image slowly appear on photographic paper. It was a meditative way of making something physical, and I think it was probably my first experience of what I would later understand as creative flow.
Growing up, my dream was to become a National Geographic photographer. I wanted to travel the world and tell stories through photography. This dream has taken a more winding path than I imagined. I’m still deeply fascinated by travel and storytelling, and I’m incredibly grateful that my work is now published and shared more widely.
There’s something especially meaningful for me in that I just finished leading a group journey in partnership with National Geographic Journeys by G Adventures. This kind of leadership has become a big part of what motivates me now. I’m interested in helping people experience the world more deeply through photography, while continuing to grow and evolve my own creative practice along the way.
photoED: What do you love most about creating stories through photography?
Anna:
Photography gives me a way to express what I find meaningful in the world. It helps me notice things that I might otherwise overlook, and gives me a way to hold on to those experiences.
When I photograph something that stops me in my tracks, I’m essentially saying, “I see you. This matters to me.” Later, when I look at the photograph, I’m not just remembering what something looked like, I can also remember how I felt when I was there.
photoED: Your work is focused on two areas of photographic exploration: mindfulness and travel. Tell us more about how these ideas come together, and what excites you about these explorations.
Anna:
Mindfulness has become the foundation of how I approach life and image-making. In practice, it means slowing down enough to actually notice what is in front of me, rather than rushing toward a preconceived idea of what I think I should photograph. When I’m working this way, photography becomes less about taking pictures and more about seeing, about being fully present with light, gesture, atmosphere, and details as they unfold in real time.
I have always found travel to be the best means of igniting my creativity. I’ve found that being somewhere unfamiliar naturally heightens my awareness.
Mindfulness creates the inner conditions for attention: presence, curiosity, openness. Photography gives that attention a form. The camera becomes a tool for staying with an experience a little longer, for deepening it rather than moving past it. Instead of simply documenting a place, I find myself in a dialogue with it, noticing something, responding to it through the frame, then noticing something new in return.
I’m particularly interested in what happens when I move beyond obvious landmarks and allow myself to be guided by attention itself, following small, fleeting, unexpected details that reveal the character of a place.
photoED: Why did you launch Mindful Eye Photography?
Anna:
I had dreamt for years about leading photography experiences, but I wanted to create something that went beyond a traditional photography tour.
I wanted to create the kind of creative community I had been looking for myself, a space where women could travel, make photographs, experiment, have meaningful conversations, and simply be curious together. My approach is that photography is not about chasing perfect images, but about slowing down enough to really see. When we remove the pressure to produce a “great” photograph, something shifts and people begin to notice more, trust their instincts, and reconnect with their own way of seeing.
I’ve discovered that some of the most meaningful parts of these experiences happen in the spaces between making photographs: in conversations over morning coffee, during the dinners that last longer than planned, or standing together simply observing light. These are the moments when a group starts to feel like a community.
There’s also a little bit of rebellion in it. I’ve spent a lot of my life working within other people’s structures, and at some point I realized I wanted to build my own table instead of waiting for someone to give me a seat at theirs.
Ultimately, the journeys are about photography, but they’re also about attention, creativity, connection, curiosity, and the experience of being fully alive in a place.
photoED: Whose work has influenced yours?
Anna:
Early on, I was drawn to documentary photographers like Sebastião Salgado and Larry Towell. I’ve also always admired Steve McCurry’s use of colour and composition, and I continue to be inspired by it.
As my own practice evolved, I became increasingly interested in John Daido Loori’s ideas around Zen photography, and I found myself returning to Freeman Patterson’s teachings after many years.
I’ve also spent a lot of time reading about creativity, the creative process, and flow. From Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s work on flow, I’m endlessly curious about what allows us to become absorbed in making something and what gets in the way.
Ultimately, I think my greatest teacher has been exploring and making. You can read about creativity forever, but at some point you have to put the books down, go outside, and pay attention to what is actually in front of you.
photoED: What makes a good photograph?
Anna:
For me, a good photograph is one that makes me feel something. It doesn’t necessarily have to be technically perfect or show something spectacular. It has to communicate something about the experience of being there.
I want a photograph to carry some of the awe, wonder, beauty, curiosity, or even quietness that I felt in the moment. If I can look at an image years later and be transported back to that experience, then I think the photograph has done its job.
I’m interested in images that feel true to an experience.
photoED: How has working in photography influenced you personally?
Anna:
Photography has been the most powerful gratitude practice for me. It has taught me to notice and celebrate the life I’m actually living and to document the things I want to remember.
It has also taught me how powerful attention can be. When I’m looking through a camera, I’m not thinking about everything else. I’m noticing light, colour, gesture, texture, relationships between things.
This understanding has influenced the way I teach. I’m less interested in teaching people how to operate a camera and more interested in helping them develop the ability to see, explore, and experiment.
Photography has become much bigger for me than technique. It’s a creative practice and a way of connecting with the world.
photoED: As an educator, what’s the one place you see students (of any age) get stuck in their photographic journeys? And what’s your advice?
Anna:
I think one of the biggest problems is that people rush.
They decide they need to “get the shot,” take one or two photographs, and move on. Or they become so focused on the technical settings that they forget to actually look at what they’re photographing.
I see a lot of divided attention, too. We’re surrounded by so much stimulation that simply being present with one thing has become surprisingly difficult.
Over the years, I’ve moved further and further away from lecture-style teaching and toward creating conditions where people can experiment and experience creative flow for themselves. I want students to make lots of photographs, make mistakes, follow their curiosity, and stay with an observation longer than feels necessary.
My advice is simple: stay longer. If something catches your attention, don’t photograph it once and move on. Ask yourself what exactly attracted you. Change your position. Look at the light. Get closer. Step back. Try a detail. Try a different focal length. Wait.
The first photograph is often just the beginning of the conversation.
photoED: Do you have travel tips for photographers?
Anna:
My advice is to slow down and connect with a place before you start wildly capturing everything.
When I arrive somewhere new, I try to observe first. What is the light doing? What colours keep appearing? What details are catching my attention? What feels distinctive about this place? I think those observations often lead to more personal photographs than simply trying to recreate the postcard images everyone has already seen.
I also recommend working in series. On our trip to Spain, for example, we spent a day looking for specific shapes and another focused on a colour. Once you start following one of these small visual obsessions, you begin to see a place differently. A collection of seemingly ordinary observations can tell you something about a destination that a single “hero” photograph can’t.
Simplify: one of the greatest powers we have as photographers is deciding what not to include in the frame. Ask yourself what the actual subject of your photograph is, and then remove the distractions.
Take the first photograph, then explore what else is there. Experiment. Allow yourself to be surprised.
Mindfulness is a wonderful companion to photography because it trains the very thing photography requires first: the ability to notice. Start practising before the trip.
GEAR UP:
What camera and equipment do you most use now? What’s your favourite lens? Tell us about your experience using Tamron lenses?
Anna:
I have been a Nikon shooter from the very beginning, and I recently moved to the Nikon Z6II mirrorless system. I had the opportunity to test the Tamron 35–150mm f/2–2.8 and the16–30mm f/2.8 lenses for the Nikon Z mount.
The 35–150mm f/2–2.8 was incredible. It covered such a broad range of situations, allowing me to move quickly from wider environmental angles to intimate details without constantly changing lenses. When I was travelling, that flexibility was ideal.
I particularly loved that lens for photographing the participants on our Spain journey. The longer focal lengths allowed me to make intimate portraits of people without interrupting what they were doing. It’s also a fantastic street photography option because you can stay a little farther away and photograph naturally without putting a camera right in someone’s face.
The 16–30mm f/2.8 was especially useful inside tight interior places like the Alhambra and Real Alcázar, where I wanted a wider perspective to capture the architecture and sense of space. I also appreciated its focusing distance, which allowed me to move quickly from an architectural overview to small details in close proximity.
Both lenses gave me the flexibility to work handheld in lower light, and the wide apertures were particularly useful for isolating subjects, creating beautiful bokeh and that softer, more atmospheric background that I love.
For me, the best travel gear is the gear that gets out of the way. I want to spend my energy responding to what I’m seeing rather than constantly thinking about what equipment I need next. These two lenses gave me that.
Check out Anna’s work here, follow her on instagram @mindfuleyephotography
and learn more about her Mindful Eye adventures, here.
