We caught up with the brilliant and insightful William Maanders a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

William, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

Back in 2011, I suffered from a huge burn-out. I wasn’t where I wanted to be in life and knew that I had to take steps in order to change my situation. Although I reached out for mental help, I noticed the ‘regular system’ didn’t provide me with any tools to overcome what I was going through. So I ended up falling back, not once, but several times during the years passing. It wasn’t until 2016 that I searched on the Internet for a way to treat my anxiety and depression. I found an experienced expert, bought his online course and it helped me a lot! That’s when the ball started rolling.

Throughout the past decade I’ve seen an incredible increase in people questioning their life, and life itself as we believe we know it, becoming more conscious about the choices they make in their lives. And what I can conclude is that from all the beautiful places I’ve visited so far in my life, going on this so-called journey within, has been the most exciting journey I’ve ever undertaken. It brings me closer to the true essence of who I really am, in order to find my personal soul mission for this ‘human experience’ we have, for the time that has been given to us.

That’s why I decided to dedicate my photography to the theme of Inner Journey and all things related to it. It has become my mission to inspire, motivate and activate as many people as I possibly can, to go on the most important journey of life: the journey within, in order to find personal peace, health and wealth.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Ever since I was young I have always been a creator. I used to build buildings with Lego or draw for hours. But at an early age my parents took me travelling to other countries, which really sparked my curiosity. Like many young boys, I wanted to become a commercial pilot but a lack of finances and knowledge in physics forced me to choose a different path. I decided to study International Tourism Management and Consultancy, in the hope of finding jobs that would enable me to travel abroad. Little did I know back then that these studies weren’t fueling my creative heart and so, after graduating, I embarked on another study:Photography. Initially I wanted to become a travel photographer but I was very open minded and immediately fell in love with studio photography and photoshop work. After graduating and moving to Amsterdam, I became a freelance photographer while working part time at a photography institute as an assistant coordinator. In 2009 I even had an exhibition in the well-known Supperclub and presented my first little book, a catalogue of the series I had made. Not long after the event, I started working as Head Photographer for an Amsterdam magazine, capturing editorials and advertorials.

But, as I got older, I knew I drifted away from my initial goal to see the world. Not fueling the passion of the heart is food for conflict and that’s when in 2011 I mentally collapsed. Fortunately I managed to pull myself out of the depth and enthusiastically put energy back into my photography endeavours. The pandemic made me filter even more my photography mission and that’s why I decided to dedicate my photography to the Inner Travel Theme. I also embarked on creating content for my first big coffee table book which will be a bundle of stories about people finding their reconnection back with nature. But I realised that maybe photos weren’t enough to inspire and motivate others to embark on what’s called “the inner journey” and that’s why I’m currently setting up a digital magazine/platform which will be completely focussed on this theme.. Personally, I’d like to invest more of my time as a Creative Director towards this new platform, and shift from being a commercial photographer towards a Digital Artist telling stories via photo books and digital art (NFT).

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

In February of 2021, I first heard about NFTs. Initially I had the idea it was more of a world for abstract Motion Graphic artists. So it wasn’t until October that I started immersing myself into this high-paced new world. What I found was a worldwide community of sensitive, empathic and caring human beings. It was at a time when still a lot of countries had lockdowns, so it not only solved the loneliness many were facing, by bringing us together, but also many sustainable connections were made. That showed me that no matter where we are from and how different we seem to be, we had more in common than we thought. The community is also very active in contributing towards good causes such as the environment or communities in need.

Although the market may be a bit slow at the moment, and contrary to popular belief, NFTs are in my opinion definitely here to stay and I’m very excited to be part of this thriving community. I’ve hosted many Spaces on Twitter and Clubhouse, together with other artists who became true friends. And even though I have yet to make my first sale, the worldwide connections that I’ve made are uncanny!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me that’s very simple. It’s when my photo or artwork touches the heart of the receiver. Unfortunately, it’s not always visible for us creators but I feel very happy when somebody responds to my work on social media, buys my artwork (either as a print, or as an NFT). It’s when people reach out to tell me it touched their hearts, it put a smile on their face, it took them back to happy memories or maybe even brought a tear of joy. That’s food for the heart and soul. It’s personally uplifting for me, both as an artist and human being, and therefore priceless!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.williammaanders.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/williammaanders/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/williammaandersphotography
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/williammaanders/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/williammaanders
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@williammaanders https://www.behance.net/williammaanders