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This journey that you are evolving through is one that you are supposed to be on, so
don't worry about a thing. Everything will be alright, just breathe.
My parents moved from India in 1969 to Canada with the hopes of creating a better lifestyle
for our family. Where we grew up was a place called Pushlinch, just by Aberfoyle, isolated,
up till about 3 years old. Then we moved to Guelph, and Guelph is a predominantly white
community. In that place, I was always fighting between, kind of, the reality of my home life,
participating in rituals at the temple and these sorts of things. Then I go to school
and it's, again, pretty much all white. I am struggling with that question, "Who am
I?" and "What am I here for?" and "Why am I learning these things?" and "Why am I in
this situation?" and "How come people don't look the same way as me?" "How come when I
go home and I am watching television, you know, it's different? Like, I am not seeing
myself on television. "How come when my mom gives me food to take to school, I don't want
to take it there because it might smell a certain way, and no one else is eating that,
they are all eating peanut butter and jam sandwiches?" And I just want peanut butter
and jam sandwiches. You know, I am thinking all these things but I don't really have the
outlet for that.
We had the opportunity to go to Curacao. I was 15 years old. I was the highschool photographer.
When I found out that we are going to go to Curacao, I was never supposed to take the
SLR. But you know, I took it home one night and just was sick the next day and then ended
up in Curacao. So I had this camera with me and at the time it was the carnival. It's
such a brilliant celebration of culture and self expression and identity and rich roots
that I wanted to document this. So I just jumped the fence and I got right up in the parade
and because I had the camera, no one questioned me. I got a whole different experience by
taking these pictures. And when I was taking these pictures, I was starting to realize,
you know, I didn't really learn much about this story or this expression or this feeling
or vibration or energy in my geography class or my history class or any of these things
and I start to say, I need to take these pictures and a responsibility to take it back home
and to share with other people and say, this is what's going on in our world. Tying all
of that together, I realized the power of photography and in that space, I start to
realize, I really want to learn more about myself and who I am and celebrating this rich
cultural history but what is my cultural history and how does that fit into my story?
So I went to India for the first time with my sisters again and travelling and at that
point, I really start to connect with family there and start to realize, ok so this is
my mom's sister, this is my dad's aunt and starting to realize the breadth and lineage
that I come from. In my earlier photographs, you still see me as bit of an outsider and
still trying to understand my role within India and who I am as an Indian. These are
early innocent images of my first encounter in India. As an Indian boy, I was to take
over my family's business. We have a family footwear store. Looking back at that time,
I realize that that might not be my journey. I was really on my own I felt in that way
and I left and I moved to Toronto.
I was able to get an entrance scholarship into Ryerson and I started to realize very
quickly that I felt more comfortable. I started to see a lot more people that looked like
me. I started to hear people that were having conversations that were going on in my head.
I started to get invited to events that had a vibration that resonated with me and that
I felt natural within. And then I started to surround myself with an artistic community
both at school because I was surrounded by all of these film makers. I was in the School
of Image Arts at Ryerson so I had all of these photographers around me. They are talking
about artistic statements and development of thesises and what are they going to say in
their work. This was stimulating my mind and at the same time, I started to get invited
to hip hop events. I started to see all these young people, my age, younger and a little bit older,
getting down to some of the funkiest beats I have heard and using their body as a form
of expression and communicating all sorts of messages and energy between this kind of
peaceful battle. It was such a brilliant space to be in and I saw the power that was
existing within that sphere. I said, I was down with that movement strong right now.
The hip hop movement was touching me at my inner most core. So a lot of people started
to see me at these events with my camera and saying, "hey, can you shoot this or that?"
And I started to say, can you come to my studio. So people started to come into the studio
and I started to photograph them and tried to tell their stories. Quickly I became someone
that people knew that was a documentarian within this movement. I met this guy named
Jose Rodriguez at one photoshoot that I was doing and he told me that he was the lead
booker and talent rep at the Guvernment nightclub. So we had a conversation and he's like, I
like your vibe, I like your energy, can you come out and shoot some live events? Ok, yeah,
let's do it! I didn't tell him that I was 17 so, from 17, I am starting to go to all
these events, I am shooting on stage, behind the scenes, chilling with some of the top
DJs in our world and getting intimate portraits with them. My whole mind set and methodology
at that point was put out the right energy, walk with confidence, know that it can happen
and just do it.
One of the first big shoots I got to do was with Common. So the photographers there is
like moving Common and like, this arm this way. The vibe just was so off in that photo
set. So then Common was taking a break and he says that he is going to go get some water.
As he walked by, I was like, Hey I am the Art Director on this shoot and I am also a
portrait photography from Toronto so I was wondering, for my portfolio, if I can take
a couple of shots, I got this white background set up. And he's like, ya I like your vibe.
Of course, after the shoot, we will do a couple of shots.
I am like, YES we got it! We are going to shoot Common. This is like my first venture
into shooting prolific messengers of our time. Go home back to Toronto, start to edit these
photos, send them over to the magazine, just being like, Thanks for having me. It ends
up that the magazine uses my shot on the cover and about 4 other shots inside. I got to photograph
a lot more artists through their platform and a few other magazines in the city. For
me there's a multitude of reasons why I want to do this. Document these really important
messengers of our time. If you start to put these images out in the world, your voice
becomes more recognized. We have the platform then to say important things and become messengers
ourselves as well. As I started to document these people, I am starting to build a really
strong base and I got so much work done in that two years and then I started to go into
my community organizing work.
Right now I am heavily involved with community organizing, community mobilizing through a
hip hop platform. We are putting forth a message that culture, young people, community programs
and creativity is important because there is a lot of miseducation about many of the
cultures we are a part of. So a lot of people look at young people of color in a certain
light. They look at hip hop in a certain light. They look at hip hop as violent, misogynistic.
They look at hip hop as bling and commercialization which, yes there are those elements of it,
but we have to recognize where do those come from. What is the root of those? How has this
culture been commodified? Because from a lot of the pioneers of the culture explain hip
hop as Hip is to know and Hop is to move. So Hip Hop being knowledge movement so we
want it to always say, how do we bring it back to that essence and to spread love and
positivity, unity, respect, justice. How do we reframe it so that we realize that local
culture is important and we don't need to look outside of ourselves and look at what's
going on MTV or MuchMusic and say that is what this culture is. No, what's going on
in your own community.
The first thing that we did was we held this big town hall meeting in City Hall and we
brought everyone together and we said to everyone this is what we want to see happen. We want
to try and unify all of our efforts and build a platform that can support and amplify all
of our voices. From there the meetings went from 20 to 40. 40 to 75. 75 to 125. To the
first festival happening in 2007, like the same year we announced it without even having
any funding, no real plan but we just knew that we had this passion and drive, love and
spirit to make something happen. That was one of the most beautiful times in my life
because we were giving birth to something amazing but it was also one of the most challenging
times in my life.
I actually went through a deep depression at that time. That time in my life is actually
a really sacred time because it actually, it made me stop and really consider how am
I going to move through this. It started to drive me deeper into my own journey and this
kind of place that I am in right now and figuring out, ok, what is my role now within this.
Manifesto's grown infinitely and immeasurably. It's grown internationally. It's grown and
it's continue to evolve in its own unique way. I have come to the realization that life
is just made up of a billion deep breathes and that's why I always think to be happy,
smile and breathe deeply.