Ajani Charles: 5 Things Anyone Can Do To Take Stunning Photos

The first step to taking stunning photos is to define “stunning,” ideally through introspection and writing and verbal communication with like-minded individuals.

As a part of our series about “5 Things Anyone Can Do To Take Stunning Photos” I had the pleasure of interviewing Ajani Charles.

Ajani Charles is a Toronto-based professional photographer, director, producer and mental health advocate, best known for his impactful storytelling about humanity and self-actualization. As a renowned name in the art and entertainment industries, Ajani has worked with numerous icons and public figures in various capacities, including Drake, Snoop Dogg, Kid Cudi, Akon, Director X, Sean Paul, Janelle Monáe, Arianna Huffington, Commander Chris Hadfield, and more. As a teenager, Ajani’s work was displayed at the Skills Canada Photographic Skills Competition, where he was awarded a medal for the technical polish of his images, and his adult years have seen his art exhibited in venues like the Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art and The New Era Flagship Store, among others. He is frequently sought after by technology, finance and media organizations for creative direction and photography services and is a current ambassador for photography giant Canon Canada, having been featured in publications such as the Toronto Guardian, Thrive Global, and more. Ajani’s current exhibit, Project T Dot, is currently on display at Toronto’s City Hall and will be available for viewing through Fall 2022. Visit Ajani’s website to learn more about his work and upcoming projects.

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Since I was a child and during my early years in Montreal, my parents noticed that I had a propensity for visual arts; I loved painting and drawing as early as three. My love of art continued throughout my childhood. At the age of nine, about four years after my parents and I moved from Haiti to Toronto, my father brought The Claude Watson School For The Arts to my attention, and he encouraged me to audition for the prestigious school soon after.

The Claude Watson School For The Arts is located in the North York district of Toronto, and it can be thought of as the Canadian equivalent of The Juilliard School for children and teenagers. My audition went well; although I was not happy about missing the North American premiere of “Power Rangers,” I became a student of The Claude Watson School For The Arts soon after. There, I was immersed in all forms of art, including but not limited to dance, music, theater, and visual arts. I loved it, especially being surrounded by like-minded, super-talented children, many of whom are still my friends to this day.

I became interested in photography by the seventh grade. Because photography was not offered at the elementary or middle school level in Toronto at the time, my father signed me up for photography classes through The Toronto School of Art. He rented a professional Canon SLR for me at the time and, through The Toronto School of Art, I learned how to shoot and develop film at the age of twelve, in the downtown core of Toronto, where I now live.

I fell in love with the art and science of photography through the meditative and therapeutic process of shooting and developing film. This was a pivotal period in my life.

The Claude Watson School For The Arts ends by the eighth grade, and from there, those interested and qualified can attend The Claude Watson Arts program at Earl Haig Secondary School, the largest high school in Canada at the time. As a student of The Claude Watson Arts program during high school, I was a visual arts major.

My father — the male figure in my life that I valued (and still value) the most, began working in the United States and other countries by the time I was in the sixth grade. So, I went from living in a seemingly-integrated two-parent household to a single-parent household by eleven. My father’s physical and psychological absence was very traumatic for me, especially as I began high school, and lacked numerous forms of guidance and mentorship. It took over 20 years for us to become close again, having just made amends with my father during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With that said, to deal with my unprocessed childhood traumas, among many maladaptive coping mechanisms, I developed the coping mechanisms of workaholism and perfectionism by the ninth grade — coping mechanisms that I struggle with to this day. I overcommitted myself and was highly involved in the Claude Watson Arts program, the North York District School Board curriculum offered to high school students at the time, and a myriad of extracurricular activities, including but not limited to numerous arts-based clubs, student council, the arts council (of which I was the president), the basketball team, the rugby team, the track and field team, and so on.

Because my mother and I moved from North York to the Portuguese Village in Toronto, about forty-five minutes away from my high school, when I was in the tenth grade, my commutes to and from school became quite long. In combination with the workaholism and perfectionism that I engaged in, I would often be at school from approximately 7:00 AM until approximately 7:00 PM.

By the end of high school, despite being accepted into many post-secondary institutions in The United States and Canada, specifically for photography, I experienced an existential crisis whereby I became unsure of my career path and sense of self. I was not sure if the path of an artist was for me.

I attended The University of Western Ontario, now known as Western University, to study philosophy. I believed that philosophy would help me make sense of myself, my career path, and the world around me. At the time, I was exhausted and bored of the perfectionism and workaholism I engaged in throughout high school, at least academically. So, boredom, freedom from my parents, childhood traumas, and the desire to be validated by my peers led me to disassociate through partying and other forms of socializing and acting out throughout my undergraduate years. I was not nearly as studious during university as I was before university. Now, I study more than I ever did.

Occasionally, some of my classmates with an entrepreneurial spirit learned about me and my background as a photographer, and they would hire me for small projects during my undergrad years. For example, I shot my first fashion campaigns for a couple of brands at the time. But, for the most part, I was retired from photography and the arts, especially in comparison to my time spent as a student in The Claude Watson Arts program.

Towards the end of my last semester at The University of Western Ontario, through the combination of studying existentialism and great thinkers like Friedrich Nietzsche and Jean-Paul Sartre, and the fact that the “real world” was coming in a matter of months, I decided to become a professional photographer. Existentialism taught me that aligning my career and other aspects of my life with my passions and interests was a wise course of action.

By December of 2006, I began the journey I am now on. After establishing myself in Toronto as a commercial photographer and photojournalist, I began acquiring new skills related to photography and different forms of media production, which led to the establishment of my media production company in 2013. By the summer of 2014, the combination of unprocessed childhood traumas, unchecked workaholism, perfectionism, burnout, and numerous unhealthy and unfulfilling relationships, including but not limited to my relationship with myself, I experienced an existential crisis and a harrowing depressive episode.

Through a great deal of hard work and support, I was able to understand the root causes of my suffering; I began replacing maladaptive habits like partying and frequenting nightclubs with adaptive practices like different forms of yoga, various forms of meditation, different forms of journaling, joining supportive and healing communities, and so on.

By 2014, I had been seeing my psychotherapist for nine years. Still, since I was experiencing a crisis, I started seeing her twice as much, and I also hired a secondary psychotherapist specializing in codependency. As such, I was able to begin the healing process during the summer of 2014 — a process that I am still engaged in today. I quit drinking alcohol, I quit partying, I quit associating with people that reflected the shame, codependency, and childhood trauma that contributed to the chaos of my life, and I began my journey as a mental health advocate, which is an essential component of my career path.

I am very grateful and fortunate to work with some of the most impactful mental health organizations globally and work as a certified mindfulness consultant.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

I can’t choose one interesting story; I have so many that are salient and meaningful to me. At this moment, I cannot hierarchically view such experiences.

Standing beside Drake and photographing him while we both stood on the Sound Academy’s stage at his first sold-out concert in Toronto, as a packed crowd screamed at him, is an inspiring career highlight for me. At that moment, I realized that he had finally realized his dreams — that he had self-actualized. Moreover, I viewed the event as a significant win for Toronto’s hip-hop community.

Coincidentally, one of the images from that concert is currently on display at Toronto’s City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square, via ArtworxTO, as part of my solo photography exhibit on Project T-Dot — my documentary project on Toronto’s hip-hop history and community, which has been in production since 2006. It is currently the largest photography exhibit in Canada, and it will be on display 24 hours per day, seven days per week, until mid-July 2022 (or later).

Another career highlight involves giving my favorite rapper, Nas, a framed portrait of himself that I shot a year earlier. I also gave him a duffle bag filled with clothes worth thousands of dollars at the time via one of my fashion clients — a now-defunct high-end streetwear brand named N4E, otherwise known as Not 4 Everyone. He loved the gifts I gave him, and he looked at my photograph of himself in awe, which was ironic because I was in awe of him. He has been a significant part of the soundtrack to my life and, by far, one of the most prolific rappers.

I am grateful that many of my favorite musicians, including but not limited to Drake, Melanie Fiona, Snoop Dogg, and The Clipse, own my work. Traveling to China in 2012 to shoot personal projects, do market research, and potentially re-establishing my career in the Chinese market led to many adventures, including nearly barreling off of a cliff while on a bus that was speeding down a mountain in Chengdu province.

I also had a lot of fun and learned a lot by attending a mindfulness conference, called Mindful Living Barbados, in Bridgetown, Barbados, during the winter of 2019. I attended the conference with part of my team at Operation Prefrontal Cortex — an organization and program co-founded by my colleague and mentor Julien Christian Lutz, professionally known as Director X, which was developed to reduce gun violence, mass violence, and police violence in Toronto through mindfulness and meditation.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I cannot think of any funny mistakes I made when I first started, but I can think of many mistakes that I made due to a lack of experience, foresight, introspection, self-awareness, mental health, and a lack of clearly-defined goals, values, and boundaries. Many of my mistakes were incredibly painful, and they were more so patterns than isolated events.

Firstly, because none of my goals and values were clearly-defined, I worked with all kinds of clients as a photographer and as the owner of a media production company, which led to no less than 80% of my clients being a poor fit for me on numerous levels.

I also had low self-esteem, and quite often, when it came to business during my early years, I reached for low-hanging fruit that would not move the needle on my career forward much, as I unconsciously believed that I was not deserving of better. And since likes often attracted likes, most of the people I worked with also had low self-esteem and unprocessed childhood traumas — what a mess.

Most of the work I did for clients before 2014 involved unfulfilling projects that frustrated and depressed me. The pay was also terrible in comparison to what I make now. Before my existential crisis in 2014 and the healing and introspection that followed, I often said “yes” when I wanted to say “no,” within the context of business.

So, the lesson that I learned is that one’s career, colleagues and clients, and the vast majority of one’s life, reflect one’s consciousness, mental health, and clearly-defined goals and values, or lack thereof.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

My media production company specializes in working with technology companies, which is a unique value proposition that I have not observed in Canada (from such a company).

As an individual, an artist, and an entrepreneur, my unique value proposition is as follows. It leads me to stand out: Ajani Charles is a Toronto-based professional photographer, director, producer, mental health advocate, and Canon Canada ambassador of Haitian descent with a background in fine arts who specializes in creating impactful stories about the human condition, self-actualization, and mental health for technology, finance, and media organizations (through his production company The Ark Media Group).

I have never met anyone with my unique value proposition or my combination of skills, and besides that, my persona(s), my life experiences, my network, and the mentors, clients, colleagues, and other supporters who value me and my work, lead me to stand out.

Besides that, one of my colleagues has described me as someone who “takes up space,” meaning that I show up to my work, meetings, and so on, and the way I write and speak leads me to stand out.

I do not have a single story that I can share about how my company or I stand out — there are many — but I can state that my career has been bridging the gap between my imagination and what I perceive to be a reality. I went from listening to Tamara Levitt of Calm, who coincidentally attended my high school about a decade before I got there, to working with her; I went from listening to Drake in my relatively small apartment in London, Ontario, to sharing a stage with him three years later; I went from watching Director X’s music videos throughout high school and university to working with him for hundreds of hours through Operation Prefrontal Cortex as our organization’s art director; I went from starting to document Toronto’s hip-hop community in 2006, with minimal skills and connections, to having photographs from my documentary project on Toronto hip-hop displayed on two of the city’s most recognizable landmarks this year; I went from imagining what it would be like to travel to certain countries to travelling the world.

I have been on the path of self-actualization for quite some time, although I do not think of myself as being self-actualized yet, at least not outside my profession and my crafts.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

Burnout is something that I struggle with, despite teaching others how to avoid it and how to transcend it. Burnout is very dangerous and, in extreme cases, can lead to death. In Japan, such tragedies are called karoshi.

Mindfulness practices and other stress reduction practices are essential for avoiding burnout and, in my opinion, such methods should be engaged daily. There is a plethora of research on the benefits of mindfulness at this point.

Moreover, for those who are ambitious and have a propensity for adding more to our plate, it is important to schedule fun activities and commit to those activities in the same way that we commit to working. It is also essential to have a support system consisting of mentors, like-minded individuals, mental health professionals, and other medical professionals who can provide support and reminders concerning burnout. Having people who remind me when I am biting off more than I can chew has helped me avoid burnout.

Finally, through reflective practices like journaling and psychotherapy, it is essential to learn what the root causes of one’s burnout are.

Quite often, burnout and the volume of activities that lead to burnout are a trauma response, avoiding uncomfortable feelings. The activities that lead to burnout can also be based on seeking the validation of others to transcend unresolved shame from childhood or elsewhere.

Some of the most ambitious people I know or have met, some of the most seemingly successful people I know, are ambitious and successful partly because they are chasing the safety and validation they lacked in childhood.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

My parents have always supported me, my creative expression, career path, and the introspection and personal development I engage in. As far as I am concerned, I have the best parents in the world, albeit imperfect parents, and I am grateful for their guidance and support. I dedicate my career to them. They are amazing people that I love very much.

I have learned a lot from the renowned photographer Jamel Shabazz, one of my mentors since 2008. I am also grateful to have learned from the likes of Julien Christian Lutz (Director X), Arianna Huffington, and many others.

Since we started working together, my assistant Carla has been a tremendous help throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are too many people and experiences that have helped me throughout my career to name here.

Are you working on any exciting projects now?

I am continually working on fulfilling and worthwhile projects, especially now that my goals and values are clearly defined.

For example, I am currently writing two books on personal development and mindfulness.

I am editing a documentary pilot on mental health amongst millennials.

I am in the process of developing a mindfulness app.

I am in the process of growing my mindfulness consulting business.

My first podcast will be launching this year.

I work with numerous mental health organizations, including but not limited to the CAMH: Centre For Addiction And Mental Health, Project Healthy Minds, Operation Prefrontal Cortex, Thrive Global, and so on, and I have a photography-based Project Healthy Minds social media campaign launching soon.

I am also mentoring 20 youth through the Canon FUTURES program as a Canon Canada ambassador who works with Canon U.S.A.

The Canon FUTURES program is designed to support young artists and entrepreneurs (including photographers, filmmakers, and others) who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents between 18 and 24 years old and passionate about creative storytelling and content creation.

Through the program, I have asked youth challenging questions that would have benefitted me and my career trajectory during my career’s early stages. I have also addressed the many mistakes throughout my career and how I lacked foresight and wisdom.

In addition to my Project T-Dot exhibit at Toronto’s City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square, I am currently part of a group photography exhibit on forests called “Forest Spaces” for the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival in Toronto, and I have a third exhibit — a solo exhibit — on the way this summer.

And Project T-Dot — my documentary project on Toronto’s hip-hop community history, will not be completed until 2024, for the most part.

The project will culminate in the publication of a coffee table book, the production of a Project T-Dot video documentary, the production of a Project T-Dot digital platform, various Project-T Dot art exhibits, and a non-profit organization that teaches youth from Toronto’s priority neighborhoods how to turn their hip-hop art forms into sustainable nonprofits and businesses.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

From my perspective, through the mental health advocacy work that I engage in and by teaching mindfulness practices, I have supported and inspired numerous youth and adults worldwide, and I continue to do so.

I have empowered them to take better care of themselves while seeking mental health support when needed.

Can you share “5 Things Anyone Can Do To Take Stunning Photos”. Please share an example for each.

“Stunning,” as a word and experience, is subjective — it differs from person to person, based on their upbringing, life experiences, traumas, genetics, psychological and physical predispositions, culture, understanding of the English language, and so on.

The first step to taking stunning photos is to define “stunning,” ideally through introspection and writing and verbal communication with like-minded individuals.

The second step to taking stunning photos is to study the art, science, history of photography, and art in general, especially the composition of those photographs and other works of art that one regards as stunning.

The third step to taking stunning photographs is explicitly defining why one wants to take stunning pictures. What are the costs and benefits of creating stunning pictures? Will they be made for the sake of creating stunning images or for some other end? Setting achievable milestones via SMART goals may be beneficial during this third step, meaning goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.

The fourth step to taking stunning photographs is to practice taking pictures, ideally of subjects that one is deeply interested in, as often as possible. During such a practice phase, the volume of practice, self-reflection, and critique of one’s work by oneself and others matters. However, the specific equipment that one uses during this phase is unimportant. In the words of Chase Jarvis, “The best camera is the one that you have with you.”

During this process of practicing, one must stay motivated by reviewing one’s motivations and goals and associating with like-minded individuals, some of which are in the practice phase and some of which are mentors that are farther along than one is — individuals who can easily create stunning photographs. And, to be clear, I practice all of my crafts every week, but the practice phase that I am referring to herein pertains to the first three to five years of identifying as a photographer. The previously-mentioned forms of motivation will help one persist through what author and marketer Seth Godin calls “the dip.”

According to Godin, every skill or project worth manifesting involves a “dip” in the middle — a period wherein stagnation and seemingly many setbacks occur. This “dip” can last hours, days, months, or years.

The fifth and final step to taking stunning photographs is to identify the pictures that one has created that are stunning, according to one’s criteria, and express gratitude for the photographs and the processes involved in creating them.

One of the biggest mistakes I have made throughout my career is moving from one goal to another without expressing gratitude for achieving such goals. Without appreciating the process. Without stopping to smell the roses. Maintaining a gratitude journal has inspired me and has improved every facet of my life, including but not limited to my skills as a photographer. Every day, I write down three things that I am grateful for, but I also write down why I am grateful for them. This has been the case since 2017.

Is it not miraculous that one has eyes to see and photograph stunning images within the context of taking stunning photographs? Is it not miraculous that one has hands to hold a camera? Is it not a blessing to be able to afford a camera? Is it not amazing to access the technology used to share one’s work via the internet? Is life not a miracle?

Finally, mindfulness is non-judgmental awareness of the present moment, which can be achieved by focusing on a single object or thought without any distractions. It is vital that one engages in mindfulness during all five of the previously-mentioned steps. Mindfulness can be practiced and experienced while shooting, before and after shooting, through different forms of meditation, various forms of yoga, walking in a mindful state, etc.

And, finally, remember these famous words by Theodore Roosevelt: “Comparison is the thief of joy.”

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I would start a movement that contributes to resolving the global mental health epidemic.

The global mental health epidemic has cost humanity far too much; too many families and lives have been lost. Too many prolific leaders, artists, and entrepreneurs have been lost.

Ultimately, lack of mental health, lack of introspection, lack of mindfulness, and lack of compassion define the root causes of most societal and individual challenges.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

For the most part, my social media handle is @ajaniphoto.

Authority readers can find me via TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Clubhouse.

My website is also available at www.ajani.ca.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!