Not only can photography be used to convey a story, it can be used to inspire a soul. Using photography in the spiritual practice of visio divina (the visual counterpart to the spiritual practice of lectio divina) has always been a part of how I experience my art.

You can read more about the contemplative prayer practice of visio divina here.

Images from A Soul Lens Experience exhibit

© 2026 Deborah A. Lee

“I love when the soul rejoices in that moment of brief and clear beauty that the camera captures,” says Deborah Lee, the photographer of A Soul Lens Experience exhibit. A native of New Rochelle, NY, over the years Lee has taken her camera’s lens on a world tour, photographing in cities such as Florence, Barcelona, Cairo, Lima, Cusco, Jerusalem, Casablanca, Rome, Yaoundé, Managua, Cape Town and New York City. Her thirst for international travel and living opens up a palette of emotions in her photos, allowing the viewer’s imagination to run free with stories and myths that the images evoke.

Lee started taking photos in her youth on summer vacation trips within the U.S., and to her family’s native Jamaica with her mother. She later took photography courses while pursuing her undergraduate degree at Williams College in Massachusetts. After graduation, she gained more experience in the photography world by landing an internship with Pace/MacGill gallery in NYC. Lee continued to hone her craft while serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco, capturing the sights, sounds and colors of this richly eclectic culture through the camera’s lens, and also later worked in a photography studio in Colorado while pursuing her graduate studies in counseling. Taking pictures with film eventually segued into the digital realm in 2007 when she moved to Perú to live and work and further explore her love of photography. Now currently living and working in Manhattan, she finds endless photographic inspiration in the bustling city that surrounds her each day.

Lee’s personal pursuit of photography and enthusiasm for this innovative art form continues to mature and deepen. Through living overseas and having other opportunities to travel and capture images, her artistic and observant eye and attention to detail sharpen her work.

Lee’s photographs reveal to her viewers the panorama of her singular and adventurous voyages, and invites them along for the journey.