ABOUT
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 tech, finance, and media organizations (through his production company the Ark Media Group).
He is a unit still photographer permittee for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (Local 667).
A graduate of the highly esteemed Claude Watson Arts program, Ajani holds the unique distinction of being the first person admitted to the program twice. First at the age of nine and later again at the age of fourteen.
Following this, he acquired a bachelor's degree in philosophy at the University of Western Ontario, currently referred to as Western University. During his undergraduate studies as a philosophy major, Ajani was profoundly influenced by existentialism, a branch of philosophy that played a pivotal role in shaping his career path.
Ajani also apprenticed at the Toronto School of Art, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada’s most reputable art gallery, and 235 Films under many of the talented artists who currently work through the award-winning production company Fela. Fela was co-founded by his mentor, colleague, and Canada’s Walk of Fame inductee Julien Christian Lutz, who is professionally known as Director X.
The mentoring and rigorous training he received at these institutions fertilized his natural talent, shaping him into a versatile and constantly evolving artist.
For Ajani, the camera is a medium for self-expression, and photography is the ideal art form for capturing the ineffable beauty of people, objects, and landscapes.
Though his images, writing, and other forms of art bear the distinctive stamp of his unique regard and sensibility, his work evidences an eclectic panoply of influences which includes Leonardo da Vinci, Ansel Adams, Alexander Rodchenko, Richard Avedon, Gordon Parks, Chi Modu, Nabil Elderkin, André Kertesz, David LaChapelle, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Janusz Zygmunt, Hype Williams, Zack Snyder, Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, Michael Ballhaus, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Helmut Newton, Annie Leibovitz, Bill Watterson, Ai Weiwei, Zaha Hadid, Stan Lee, and mentors like Jamel Shabazz and Ernie Paniccioli, who has described Ajani as “the most prolific hip-hop photographer in Canada.”
Ajani is also the founder of the Visionaries, a Toronto-based photography and cinematography non-profit and educational program providing mentoring to youth from the city’s priority neighbourhoods.
Moreover, his work has been displayed at the Skills Canada Photographic Skills Competition, where he was awarded a medal for the technical polish of his images as a teenager. His photographs have also been exhibited in venues such as Toronto’s City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square, the Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art Toronto, the New Era flagship store, and festivals such as the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival.
In addition, Ajani has gained considerable notoriety in the Greater Toronto Area through his first documentary project, Project T-Dot. This visual chronicle of the city’s hip-hop culture and community includes a wide-ranging collection of intimate and dramatic black-and-white photographs. In production since December 2006, most aspects of Project T-Dot are currently scheduled for a late 2026 release date.
His solo Project T-Dot art exhibit at Toronto’s City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square remains the largest art exhibit on hip-hop culture in Canadian history and the first to occupy two floors on the exterior of Toronto’s City Hall.
His current Project, the T-Dot art exhibit at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, is the largest to be installed at the airport thus far and is scheduled to be available until late January 2025.
Ajani is a public speaker, educator, and consultant who addresses topics such as art, photography, filmmaking, creativity, mental health, mindfulness, introspection, personal development, self-actualization, social media, personal finance, artificial intelligence, blockchains, and other technologies, and the intersection of the aforementioned subjects, through platforms such as The World Affairs Conference (WAC), North America's largest and Canada's oldest annual student-run current events conference, Canon’s Get Up & Go Conference, and the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Indigenous Hip-Hop Symposium.
He is also a journalist for publications such as Big Think and Thrive Global, an American company that provides behaviour change technology and media to support individuals struggling with stress and burnout.
Ajani is very selective about the organizations he works with. Among his many clients are the City of Toronto, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Universal Music Group, Calm, Corus Entertainment, the UFC, and Canon U.S.A.
His work has been featured through the Toronto Star, CBC, CTV, Citytv, Complex, Toronto Life, Jay-Z’s Life + Times, CreativeLive, Sirius XM, CNN, and Vogue.
Furthermore, he has worked with numerous icons and public figures in various capacities, including Arianna Huffington, Drake, Boi-1da, Pharrell Williams, Wu-Tang Clan, Clipse, the Lox, Janelle Monáe, Snoop Dogg, Nas, Slash, Jessie Reyez, Fat Joe, Akon, Gene Simmons, Sean Paul, Beenie Man, Spike Lee, Director X, Dana White, Krista Kim, Commander Chris Hadfield, and the Toronto City Council.
Ajani is a certified mindfulness consultant who teaches mindfulness and different forms of meditation to ambitious and influential executives, entrepreneurs, athletes, corporate teams, and film and television professionals on a global scale. He integrates mindfulness throughout all facets of his work.
He regularly donates his time, services, and capital from each of his unique projects to non-profit organizations and initiatives that promote and conduct research on mental health, such as the Centre For Addiction And Mental Health, Operation Prefrontal Cortex and Project Healthy Minds. Mental health advocacy is a core component of his life and ventures.
