Anna Lehespalu – Photography became a way for me to look more closely at my inner world
In your project “I Dream About the World”, the images seem less like a narrative and more like an inner state. Are you interested in explaining something, or in conveying an experience?
I think I am more interested in conveying an experience than explaining something directly. My images usually come from feelings and periods of life that I am moving through. Over time I realized that photography became a way for me to go through these chapters and understand them better.
There is usually a time when I photograph very intuitively and then later there is a time for reflection, where the narrative slowly starts to appear. Overall, photography has been a way for me to document emotions and different moments in time through different methods and materials.
Mental health has also been an important topic in my life, and photography became one of the ways I learned to stay with difficult feelings and process them. At the same time, I am interested in how personal experiences can connect to something more collective. Even if we all experience emotions differently, there are still certain feelings many people recognize in themselves. I do not try to give one fixed meaning, but rather create space for people to feel something in their own way.
Anna Lehespalu
You have mentioned that photography has helped you understand yourself. How does this process work for you?
Photography became a way for me to look more closely at my inner world. I became curious about how emotional states change perception and how differently the world can feel depending on what is happening inside us.
At the same time, I was also going through therapy and learning more about human psychology, so photography became almost a parallel process to that. I started documenting emotions, atmosphere, weather, light, and mental states through landscape and different photographic methods.
Sometimes I photographed very instinctively and only understood something about the images later. Music also became part of the process because it helped me reconnect emotionally to certain moments while editing or revisiting work. Over time photography became a personal way of trying to understand emotions, memories, and perception.
Anna Lehespalu
How have the myths and narratives surrounding the Northern Lights influenced your imagination and the visual language of “I Dream About the World”?
I have felt that myths and spirituality are deeply present in the North. I did read stories and fairy tales, but what influenced me most was the feeling of those places themselves.
During my residency in Greenland, I was physically alone, but I never truly felt alone. There was something very strong in the landscape and atmosphere there. Sometimes it even frightened me because the feeling was so intense and difficult to explain.
The power of nature in Greenland and Iceland almost became a myth on its own for me. I started to understand how these stories are born, because when you are surrounded by silence, darkness, storms, and isolation, the imagination becomes much wider.
Anna Lehespalu
You’ve said that emotions are more complex than the words we use to describe them. Can an image express them more faithfully?
I think words give us a shared language for emotions, but every person still experiences them differently through their own life and memories.
For me, photography became a way to explore emotions visually and emotionally instead of trying to define them too clearly. I do not know if an image expresses emotions more faithfully than words, but it can express them differently. Sometimes people may not understand the exact story behind an image, but they still recognize a feeling inside it.
I am interested in the balance between something deeply personal and something collective. Even though our experiences are different, there are certain emotions many people struggle with or search for. Photography allows me to explore that space and keep returning to it.
Anna Lehespalu
As an artist who also works with music, how do these two mediums interact in your creative process?
Music has been the biggest passion in my life. I started learning piano and singing from a very young age, and classical music especially has always stayed close to me.
Even before photography, music was my way of connecting emotionally to the world. I once imagined becoming a musician professionally, but over time I realized how demanding that path is. Still, I cannot imagine my life without music.
Music is deeply connected to my photographic process. I listen to it intuitively while walking, photographing, hiking, or editing. It helps me enter certain emotional states and reconnect with moments later while working on the images.
When I imagine my work being exhibited, I almost always imagine it together with music. I like the idea that image and sound together can take someone outside of everyday life for a moment and allow them to stay with their feelings more deeply.
Anna Lehespalu
Do you ever begin with a sound or a musical idea when creating an image?
Yes, sometimes. I collaborate with musicians quite often, and music can strongly influence the emotional direction of my work.
Usually it happens very intuitively. Certain music or musicians create a feeling in me that opens something emotionally, even if I cannot fully explain why. I have become interested in following that process more consciously, taking a piece of music and letting it guide me visually, then creating images that carry the same emotional atmosphere.
I would like to continue developing collaborations where music and photography exist together and shape each other.
Anna Lehespalu
Anna Lehespalu
The landscapes you choose often carry a strong sense of isolation. Is this a conscious choice?
I do not think I consciously chose isolation, but loneliness has been an important theme in my life for a long time. As an only child, I often felt isolated growing up, and music and nature became my closest companions.
Over time I realized I needed to get close to those feelings rather than avoid them. My work became part of that process. During periods in Iceland and Greenland, especially during winter and during the pandemic, I spent long periods alone in very isolated landscapes.
It was not something I planned. Life and the environments I was drawn to naturally brought me into those situations. Through photography, I documented what was happening around me and inside me at the same time.
Anna Lehespalu
Is there a difference in the way you create when you stay in one place for a longer period, compared to when you are constantly on the move, given that you travel frequently?
Yes, definitely. I have noticed that I create much more when I am moving. When I am in unfamiliar places, something opens in me emotionally and creatively. More seems to happen inside me when life feels less familiar.
A lot of my work has been made during periods of traveling, transition, or temporary living situations. I think movement keeps me connected to intuition and curiosity.
When I stay in one place for a longer time, the process becomes slower and more reflective. Then I spend more time trying to understand what I have already experienced.
I think I need both movement and stillness in my process. One brings experience, and the other brings reflection.
Anna Lehespalu
Do you think an image can function like music — that is, be felt immediately without the need for interpretation?
That is an interesting question. I think images can sometimes function very similarly to music because both can reach a person before logic and rationality does. We often react to atmosphere, color, rhythm, or space emotionally before we fully understand why.
Sometimes an image touches something unconscious. It can remind someone of a feeling, a dream, or a memory they cannot completely explain. In that sense, photography can move through a person in a very immediate way, much like music does.
At the same time, I think it is very personal and depends on the person and on which senses are more heightened in them emotionally. Some people connect very strongly through sound, others through images, atmosphere, or maybe words.
Even though I work with images now, my own strongest emotional connection is probably still with music and nature. They reach me very directly, without needing explanation, and I think I search for a similar feeling in photography.
Anna Lehespalu
Are you more interested in the viewer “understanding” your work, or “feeling” it?
I think feeling is more important to me. Understanding can come later, or sometimes not at all. I do not expect people to fully understand my experiences or intentions, but I hope they can feel something real in the work and connect to it in their own way.
I like to invite people to feel their emotions, whether they are magical, beautiful, difficult, or uncomfortable. In many ways, photography is also my own reminder to return back to my feelings and stay connected to them.
I am always very happy when people want to share something about their own inner world after seeing the work. Sometimes a conversation begins through an image, and I think that kind of connection is very special.
Anna Lehespalu
Info
Anna Lehespalu is a visual artist from Estonia. She is working with photography, video, and music. Her creative process is intuitive and rooted in personal emotion. Through her work, she explores psychological landscapes and the hidden dimensions of the human mind. She documents her own inner experiences in time and their reflection in her surroundings especially the raw, quiet beauty of nature.
Anna Lehespalu
