REPORT CARD
STUDENT:
Ajani Charles
GRADUATED:
Earl Haig Secondary School, 2003
BEST SUBJECT:
Visual Arts
WORST SUBJECT:
Math
CURRENT JOB:
Photographer
Photographer Ajani Charles had an affinity for the arts from an early age. A fine arts major at the Claude Watson program at Earl Haig, he was a well-rounded student who ranked on the honour roll, participated in numerous sports and acted as president of the school’s art council.
His interest in photography was piqued thanks to a teacher who brought in guest artists in addition to a memorable a school art trip to France and Italy.
But even with his arts education, after leaving high school he still wasn’t sure if it was what he wanted to do with the rest of his life.
“I ended up going to Western for philosophy, because I thought it would help me make sense of the world,” explains Charles.
And it did help him. It brought him back, after four years away, to art.
“I realized through studying existentialism that the smartest, or rather the wisest thing that a human being can do is pursue what they are most passionate about in life. That’s pretty much the only way to live.”
Once he made the decision to get back into photography he started up his own business. However, he quickly realized that he had fallen behind his peers who hadn’t stopped making art. Luckily, he also boasts skill that helped him catch up:
“Something I realized, even back in high school, is what I’m really best at is making human connections and networking,” says Charles. “I used that to create opportunities for myself, career-wise, that photographers at the time who were my age in Toronto just couldn’t get.”
In the nearly 10 years since graduating, he has shot campaigns for many major international retailers such as H&M, The Bay and Hallmark.
Some of Charles’ connections also turned him on to some interesting side projects. Since 2007, he has been working on a documentary of the Toronto hip hop scene. “I want to tell the story of each individual artist and then find where everyone’s story overlaps and tell the story of hip hop as a whole,” Charles says.
It is slated to come out by the end of this year and will also take shape as a book and an art exhibit, with an online and video component.
Although he is proud of his accomplishments, Charles is most proud of Young Visionaries, a program he started to teach youth about photography and video production. It’s his way of giving back some of the inspiration he gained in his own high school days.
