Anitra Lavanhar is a Renaissance woman with a camera. In high school she says she loved the magic of the dark room and felt challenged by photography’s technical and competitive aspects.

“Wanting to be a successful photographer is a little like a guitar player wanting to be famous,” she says. “It’s pretty much a saturated field. And very difficult.”

A self-labeled anthro-photographer, she describes herself as being “fueled by a lifelong curiosity of the world around me, the people in it and their stories. My lens is wide.”

Lavanhar studied anthropology at Sarah Lawrence College and spent a year in India photographing women in a small fishing village. Later she worked in women’s health as a medical assistant and massage therapist. Then in 2015, thanks to the iPhone and walking on a spiritual pilgrimage in Spain, she had an “I can do this” moment. 

A Boston native, Lavanhar — pregnant with her first child — moved to Tulsa in 2000 with husband Marlin Lavanhar as he took the job as pastor of All Souls Unitarian Church.

“It was a big change and challenge,” she says, crediting her adjustment to photography. “It helped me appreciate where I was instead of missing what I didn’t have.”

In 2006, tragedy struck with the death of the couple’s 3-year-old daughter. “Out of these challenging things came amazing things,” Lavanhar reflects. She became a founder and staff member at Discovery Lab. She created the All Souls Acoustic Coffeehouse at the church. Family members established The Sienna Project, named in memory of her daughter, to build schools in Guatemala. 

“Walking the path, having the past grief, photography has helped me with my mental health. Seeing the beauty wherever I am. Even in the mundane,” she says. 

Lavanhar focuses on fine art and portraiture, and her signature technique is multiple exposures in nature and street scenes. She likes to shoot urban landscapes, street photography and macro nature. She tends to be drawn to that which isn’t traditionally photographed, like the detail and architecture of a parking garage rather than something like the Tulsa skyline. 

“It’s almost like cheating to take a photo of something already beautiful,” she says. 

“Painting adds to canvas; photography is the art of subtraction,” she continues. “What will you include in the frame and what will you leave out?” 

The COVID lockdown inspired two new portraiture concepts: “Doortraits,” which featured families on their front porches, and also exploring documentary family photography. “You’re like a journalist embedded with a family,” she says, “capturing authentic family life.” 

Lavanhar teaches photography through Philbrook Museum of Art’s Stay Gold sessions and will host some afternoon workshops at Oxley Nature Center March 9 and May 4. She is also an instructor of White Crane Silat, an Indonesian martial art. “It’s a practice I’ve been a part of and developed for 36 years,” she says. During a Silat retreat in Indonesia last summer she photographed older women, showcasing how beauty and strength increase with years.

Age and aging drive her now. Her children are 23 and 15. She’s 58. Following success with local shows and having her work in the government and office buildings, she looks ahead. 

“When I look at my goals, I very much want to pursue the fine arts even more,” she says.