About The Artist
My name is Gajan Balan. I’m a photographer and director based in Toronto. To me, cameras are passports and photography is time travel. My visuals are an exercise in world-building that moves across portraiture, fashion, street, and documentary.
This approach has earned me multiple awards, gallery exhibitions, publications, and an ambassadorship with Leica Camera. It sends me across the globe and has allowed me to cultivate a worldwide family of trusted partners. My time is now divided between crafting meaningful visuals for commercial clients and highlighting humanistic stories that draw deep inspiration from my culture and heritage.
Quite simply, my purpose is to travel the world, create compelling stories, and look to inspire the next generation of creatives.
Trusted By
And more…
The Work
2023 - Director: Sigma x Ara Coutts
2023 - Cinematographer: SVDP, SEEDS
2022 - Photographer: Elevate Toronto, Featured Gallery
2022 - Photographer: Forbes x SVDP
Beyond The Work
It was never enough for me to pursue the lifestyle of an artist. I wanted to cultivate an audience of creatives to share this journey with and drive them to produce their finest work. For over five years, I’ve been sharing my creative process, insights on our tools of the trade, and the lessons learned from adventures around the world..
That consistency has garnered nearly 50,000 YouTube subscribers, over 200,000 monthly views on Instagram, and built a newsletter of 20,000 monthly readers. This is the byproduct of authentic storytelling and a commitment to transparency.
The goal isn’t to attract a massive following and retreat into a hollow influencer lifestyle. Hell no. It’s about sharing the highs and lows of the working creative to spark something in the next generation of storytellers. My belief is that in helping them find their vision, I’ll be able to elevate my own.
Learn More
“Gajan is a Toronto-based photographer and director who does varied work as a street and portrait photographer while also producing stories for his newsletter and community called Church & Street.”
“Gajan and I were able to speak ahead of his unveiling as the worldwide brand ambassador for the Leica SL3-S. Gajan and I got on great and I can’t wait to speak to him again in future about his next projects but for now please enjoy this first chat.”
“On this episode of the AOV podcast we talk with Gajan Balan a creator and artist. Aside from being an incredible photographer he hosted 5 podcasts himself, has a family and thriving career. How does he do it all? Find out on todays episode!”
“As a photographer and director working with the big brands and artists, he spends the workday creating new content to engage with creators, and then he goes home and creates his own content to do exactly the same thing.”