Speaking during a session titled Being There: A Life of Travel Photography, the celebrated Australian photographer traced his lifelong pursuit of images shaped by his curiosity and discipline, offering a practical look at the realities behind photographing the world with ‘intent rather than impulse’.

Over the past 12 months alone, I’Anson said he had undertaken 12 international trips across 17 countries, spending more than 200 days away from home and producing over 32,000 images – a pace that reflects what he described as an enduring passion for both travel and photography.

“I photograph just about everything as a travel photographer – people, places and wildlife,” he said, describing a practice driven as much by consistency as by inspiration.

Central to his work, I’Anson explained, is an “obsession with the transformative power of light”, a principle that guides his decision-making regardless of subject or destination. 

“Even if the subject is interesting or the landscape is amazing, if the light doesn’t complement it, I won’t shoot,” he said, recounting experiences in Antarctica where he once stayed awake for three days on the trot to catch the best window of soft light around sunrise and sunset, and at Victoria Falls where he waited ‘soaked and shivering’ for three quarters of an hour' for a fleeting rainbow to appear.

I’Anson, who has photographed extensively across Antarctica, Chile, Bolivia, South of Georgia in the last 12 months and has plans to visit Kazakhstan, Zambia amongst other countries over the next 12 months starting with the UAE, said travel photography at its best goes beyond documentation. “At its most basic, it provides a visual record of places visited,” he said. “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 also stressed how photographing while travelling is fundamentally different from travelling to photograph, noting that his trips are structured around research, timing and preparation rather than chance encounters. Before each journey, he studies guidebooks, festival calendars and visual references, pre-visualising images long before arriving on location.

“When the location is perfect and the light is right, you wait for the subject,” he said, describing his process of ‘pre-visualisation’ he first learned during his early travels to India in the 1980s and refined across decades of commercial and editorial work.

I’Anson also highlighted the ethical dimension of his practice, emphasising respect for people and place, and resisting staged setups in favour of observation. “I don’t set up. That’s commercial photography,” he said. “I shoot as I see it.”

Reflecting on a career that began with a gifted camera at age 16 and evolved through stock photography, publishing, assignments and leading small-group photographic expeditions worldwide, I’Anson said his goal remains unchanged: to create images worthy of both individual attention and broader narrative context.

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

The talk was part of Xposure 2026, the 10th edition of the international photography festival being held in Sharjah from January 29 to February 4 under the theme “A Decade of Visual Storytelling”.