your photographer
with LoveWelcome! I'm Anna.
My passion for photography began in my early childhood; I was not the kid with a contagious ear-to-ear smile on camera. In fact, I was just the opposite. Looking back through family, vacation, and attempted candid photos, I stand out as the one giving the camera my best death stare or shedding an occasional tear. I cannot explain my apprehension about being the subject of a photo, but my solution was clear: I had to get behind the camera.
A Visual Anthropologist
Ever since I got my hands on a camera, what was once a mechanism to avoid family photos has blossomed into a genuine desire to capture the stories that I discover.
As an undergraduate student at the University of South Carolina, I was able to craft my own degree to study what I love; the study of human nature through photographs, also known as Visual Anthropology. Within the past decade, I have researched the meaning and applications behind the word energy, published my discoveries through my photo book Capturing Energy, lived in Morocco to study a mystic form of Islam rooted in Love called Sufism, have interviewed and documented leaders of racial justice movements, and have been honored to capture and share visual stories of friends and family around the globe.
I am now based on the Hawaiian island of O'ahu and am lucky enough to be able to practice what I love for a living. Alongside my photography business, I am also a studio manager at Still & Moving Center & Yoga teacher.
My goal as a visual anthropologist is to convey the beauty in each of my subjects through my photographs ["paintings of light"]. I am a photographer, a visual anthropologist, a storyteller, but foremost I am simply a human with a story, just like you. Enjoy!
Featured in...
2024 Still & Moving Center Newsletter (https://stillandmovingcenter.com/2024/02/anna-morales-a-visual-anthropologist-in-love-photographer-studio-manager-yoga-teacher/)
2022 Capturing Energy: A Photo Book (https://a-visual-anthropologistshop.square.site/product/capturingenergy/1?cs=true&cst=custom#)
2021 School for International Training, Perceiving the Intangible: Introspective & Meditational Practices in Moroccan Sufism (https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection/3414/)
2021 3SHOTS Triglyph Photography Festival (https://www.3shotsfestival.com/)
2021 University of South Carolina Honors College Art Exhibition- 2nd place finalist (https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/honors_college/internal/student_leadership_engagement/cultural_engagement_program/exhibition/index.php)
2020 International Center of Photography’s Global Images for Global Crisis Exhibition & Book (https://www.icp.org/exhibitions/icpconcerned-global-images-for-global-crisis)
2020 Photo SC’s Black Lives Matter Exhibition (https://www.abccolumbia.com/2020/07/01/new-photo-show-captures-moments-during-pandemic-blm-protests-in-columbia/)
2020 University of South Carolina Honors College Art Exhibition
2017 Drexel University National Photography High School Contest (https://drexel.edu/westphal/academics/undergraduate/PHTO/HighSchoolContestArchives/)
2016 Barcelona National Geographic Student Expedition Photo Exhibition
The University of South Carolina Honors College https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/honors_college/study/create_your_own_major/index.php