Socality And Canon Creator Lab’s Toronto Creative Experience At OBJX Studio

Entrepreneur, Stylist, Model: Tlisa Ghany, Location: OBJX Studio, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Year: 2023, Photographer: Ajani Charles

On Sunday, January 22, 2023, I attended the last half of Socality and Canon Creator Lab’s Toronto Creative Experience at OBJX Studio via Canon Canada to support my colleagues and clients, to interact with and learn from the fantastic community that Socality has created, and to practice my photojournalistic skills.

On my way to the event, I was exhausted due to long-held patterns of perfectionism and workaholism that inevitably catch up to me, patterns that I ironically and gratefully teach many others how to avoid or transcend.

When I arrived at OBJX Studio, my exhaustion was almost immediately replaced by curiosity and creative energy.

Since I became a Canon Canada ambassador in 2020, I have attended all Toronto-based Socality events. And through Socality, I had the good fortune of facilitating a virtual workshop on the cultivation of mental health for creatives during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic when creatives and all other people truly needed to cultivate as much mental health as possible.

It was amazing to see familiar faces at the recent Toronto Creative Experience, to encourage those new to photography and other creative endeavours, and to access excellent gear provided by Canon Canada and Henry’s, otherwise known as Canada's Greatest Camera Store. I will work with Henry’s this year and collaborate with the company’s mental health organization, The Henry’s Foundation. Consequently, I will be doing business with two organizations representing a company that I have been a customer of since I was a kid, much like Canon Canada.

OBJX is an expansive and eclectic space with numerous vintage motifs and pieces of furniture. It is an excellent location for various photo shoots and other projects.

Location: OBJX Studio, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Year: 2023, Photographer: Ajani Charles

I enjoyed watching the many creatives within the space photographing the models that were hired for the event, including but not limited to Tlisa Ghany, who is, among other roles, a model that I have worked with for my meditation playlist series and on behalf of a campaign for Project Healthy Minds; one of the fastest-growing mental health non-profits in America.

When I observed the various photographers, other creatives, and various executives at the event, I saw and documented a culturally-diverse group of people in good spirits. The vast majority of them reminded me of myself at different stages of my life and various stages of my career.

I saw myself in amateur photographers, hobbyists, and a handful of professionals like my fellow Canon Canada ambassador Pam Lau, who was working at the event. And the models reminded me of the hundreds of models I have worked with over the years.

I was reminded of my early beginnings as a photographer, between the ages of 12 and 24, when it was challenging to walk away from a project with many strong images, at least according to my standards during that timeframe.

And I was reminded of the years that followed, wherein my ambitions began to align with my skills.

Thankfully, now I experience great difficulty narrowing down the strongest images from my photography projects, and so do my clients. I also do more than photography professionally and have significantly expanded my complementary skillsets far beyond what I knew was possible as a child.

Although it was my first time at OBJX Studio, I felt at home, and I was, and still am, grateful for the fact that I currently live in the most culturally diverse city in the world and for the community that Socality has created with great care, ingenuity, and conscientiousness.

It was also awesome to meet Ayanna Allen, one of my Canon FUTURES students and one of the models at the event.

Last year and this year, through the program, and specifically through a workshop entitled Work On Yourself More Than You Work On Your Craft, I have taught 20 young creatives between the ages of 18 and 24 the inner game of being a professional creator, emotional intelligence, meditation, transcending limiting beliefs, the psychology of money, the importance of clearly-defined values and boundaries, creating a unique value proposition, sales, and far more.

Ayanna told me she greatly appreciated the assignment associated with Work On Yourself More Than You Work On Your Craft, which she and the rest of the FUTURES creators will submit this April or earlier. I told her it is an incredibly challenging assignment for any creative, whether 18 or 60 years old. It involves tough questions that provide my students with much-needed clarity.

The feedback I have received from the Canon FUTURES creators this year and last has validated the pain and suffering I have endured throughout my career, self-imposed and otherwise.

As such, I would not change a thing about my life, my evolution as an artist, entrepreneur, and human being, it was all worth it, and I look forward to the next Socality and Canon Creator Lab event.

Socality And Canon Creator Lab’s Toronto Creative Experience At OBJX Studio

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