Ben Lee, Photographer & Artist

When I was a primary school kid, everyday after school, I would rush to the attic of my dad’s architecture firm, and immerse myself in pencil drawing, often times with my elder brother Lawrence.

When we got deeply into our visual creations, I’d noticed something very interesting. I’d get so absorbed, that I felt I was at one with the art itself. I felt the characters on paper coming to life. My body felt lightly suspended in air, time dilated, space distorted, tunnel vision and experiences carved deeply in my mind. Most magically, the drawings just appeared on the paper itself; I was merely holding the pencil.

We’d spend much time immersed in our bliss, until my mother’s voice from downstairs broke dreamlike state “guys, time for dinner!”

As a teenager growing up in Canada, I looked back at those experiences as nothing short of magical, as I never experienced anything quite like it again.

Intuitively, I understood those were important moments in my life. I felt so alive, but I downplayed those experiences as “I was just a kid and that’s what kids do, they have fun”.

What I failed to understand correctly was that actually I forgot how to be a kid. Forgot how to see without the limitations of human constructs and and filters I’ve picked up along the way.

Fast forward to my first summer at McGill University as a business school student, I intuitively picked up my first camera out of the frustration of my dissatisfaction with my side hustle as a student entrepreneur that summer.

On the very first day I got the camera, I went out onto the streets of old Montreal, and without any expectations, start started walking, observing, thinking, clicking.

Strangely. And with immense satisfaction, this photo-walk threw me into the same feeling I had during childhood while drawing.

That feeling I knew was important but never felt after since.

I let all of my energy out on photography that summer. I was hooked.

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Photography consistently brought me the state of joy and contentment. I wasn’t sure why, but I decided to follow my intuition and move to London to pursue photography professionally.

After 15 years of professional photography, it became apparent that the practice of photography was only a small bit about the practice of using a camera.

Photography is the practice of seeing, thinking, feeling, and most importantly, a practice of being. The more I did it, the more I felt a connection to the world. The more I practiced creativity, the more there was creativity left to let out. The deeper I went with the flow of life, the better I became at accessing that steady, peaceful flow of life.

I realized by accident, my original commitment to become “technically good” at photography, actually kicked off a positive cycle of exploration of my internal world, and expressing that perspective in my outer world. It’s a practice of alignment.

When you are aligned in, you intuitively know which are the decisive moments.

Photography is my attempt to capture a slice of my visual consciousness and share that with the world.

One photo at a time, maybe one day there could be a ripple effect of positive and joyful energies.

Hope to share this growth journey as an artist to continually expand and collaborate with the world and the universe beyond.

— 2023 July 23