By Jagdeesh Mann
Mata Press Service

Before Facebook, Flickr and YouTube, there was Chandra Bodalia.
For 26 years, this soft-spoken, avuncular photographer has been ‘Mr. Social Media’ for Vancouver’s Indo-Canadian community, snapping photos, writing down names and archiving the moments and milestones for everyone from celebrities to the common people.
He has been the administrator for the profile of an entire community for more than two decades.
The simplicity of the task, however, belies the sacrifice required to accomplish it.
On a typical weekend there are 10 to 20 functions — weddings, birthdays, celebrity shows, concerts, political meetings and religious functions — that Bodalia is asked to attend, camera and equipment bag on his shoulder.
Average that out, multiply by 50 weeks and then 26 years, and you get about 20,000 events. And then add 20,000 or so events Bodalia has attended during each work week.
All this amounts to a mind-boggling three-million-plus photos taken over his career. While the numbers are overwhelming, an even greater testament to his commitment to capturing milestone moments is that Bodalia almost always works pro bono.
“I always believed it was important that the work and sacrifices of others be recorded and acknowledged,” he explains. “So I decided to use my abilities in photography to contribute to the community.”
But more than the free work and personal expenses spent driving from one function to another, Bodalia’s greatest sacrifice has been the countless hours he has clocked to capture such a massive volume of images. His garage is stacked floor to ceiling with hundreds of boxes of photos, filed chronologically.
Their presence is a stinging reminder of the greatest sacrifice he has made for his work — spending time away from his own family.
“That has not been easy for me,” he confesses, particularly noting the time he has had to spend away from his elderly parents.
While the rise of the Internet and particularly social media has eased the pressures on Bodalia’s time, he continues to be highly in demand. Whenever he is not at English Bay photographing the sunset — his favourite subject — he is still busy publishing photos in community papers, as well as in the city dailies.
These days, however, he is looking at launching another project to bring his work into the digital age and turn his library of images into a publicly accessible archive.
Turning over all of his work to the public domain is an undertaking he has long had in mind.
Bodalia’s mission and his single-minded devotion to his craft has been inspirational for a group of leading media figures such as Shushma Dutt, the owner of RJ1200 radio, and Harbinder Sewak, publisher of the South Asian Post, as well as Vancouver’s Consul General for India, Ashok Das.
“Chandra has always given so much to the community in terms of his time,” Sewak commented. “We are trying to find a way to pool our resources and archive his contribution online so everybody continues to benefit from his body of work.”
Meanwhile, as this new project unfolds, Bodalia carries on behind his camera, interpreting yet never judging.
“I still love just taking pictures,” he says. “Each time I get set to peer through the lens, I never know what moment I am about to capture.”

Company: Chandra Bodalia photography
Employees: Self-employed
Years in business: 26
Email: [email protected]