Interest in photography runs deep for this Ismaili family

Interest in photography runs deep in the family

Daughter and granddaughters recognized for their clicks!

Keen interest in photography runs deep in the family of Sultan Jessa, a retired Ismaili journalist and a regular contributor to the Ismailimail.

Sultan and his wife Rosila have been taking photographs on their travels around the globe for many years.

Now their older daughter Anaar, an actuary with Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada and married to Farid Jalilian, who hails from Iran, and their two daughters Tia and Neela have been recognized for their clicks.

Anaar, Tia and Neela participated in Click, Create and Celebrate, an initiative of Caledon Public Library to celebrate Canada 150.

Caledon is a tiny Ontario community near Brampton.

Caledon Public Library was the proud recipient of the 2016 Angus Mowat Award of Excellence in recognition of Click, Create and Celebrate initiative.

Colleen Lipp, chief executive officer and chief librarian, said Angus Mowat Award was awarded to them by the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, culture and Sport.

This award, she said, recognized a commitment to excellence in the delivery of public library service.”But, truth be told, it is those who generously share their talent, whose who support the work of others and those who join in on the celebration who truly deliver – again and again,” Lipp said.

Marty Harrison, president of Caledon Public Library, congratulated participants and winners of their 2017 Click, Create and Celebrate contest.

Tia’s photo “Doesn’t get more Canadian than this” won the first prize in the teen photography contest.

Her younger sister Neela’s photo “Sunset Cruise” won the second prize in the children’s photography.

And their mother’s photo “Paddle On” won the third prize in the adult photography.

“Our younger daughter Yasmin has also become an accomplished photographer,” said Sultan.

Yasmin, who with her husband Dr. Scott Hartley, teach at the University of Miami in Oxford, Ohio, are also keen travelers and have been taking “great photos.”

Sultan said one of Yasmin’s best photographs he likes was shot in Pacific Northwest in the summer of 2015.

The family’s interest in photography started when the oldest brother Badru, an Edmonton resident, bought a Kodak box camera for a few dollars at a very young age in Arusha, Tanzania.

He started earning money from developing and printing photographs at home while at the same time continuing to help the family in other businesses.

Sultan’s younger brother Shamsh went to England to become a color photography technician.

Even after arriving in Canada, Shamsh worked in his chosen field and then switched to perfumery business.

Sultan started his long journalism career with the Nationalist in the Tanzanian capital of Dar es Salaam and switching to the Standard before becoming Nation’s chief correspondent in Tanzania.

“I never had to take photographs,” he recalled. “As a reporter, I was always accompanied by trained photographers.”

Over the years, Sultan worked – sometimes a freelancer for Drum and Africa magazines and also for international news agencies like Agence France Presse, (AFP), Ceteka, a Czech news agency.

He also stringed for the Reuters, Associated Press and the United Press Agency when their full time correspondents in East Africa were on vacation.

Sultan worked for some great photographers like the late Mohamed Amin of Camerapix, Adarsh Nayer of the Standard and Azhar Chaudhry of the Nation group among many others.

When the Nation newspapers were banned in Tanzania, Sultan returned to his hometown of Arusha where he and his close friend Abdul Dewji, now living in Calgary, started a weekly newspaper called the Northern News which circulated in northern Tanzania.

Sultan first met Abdul when he started working for the Nationalist after completing his training in England.

To this day, Sultan and Abdul have been close friends.

“I started taking pictures when we started the Northern News,” added Sultan.

After immigrating to Canada in 1973, Sultan first started working for the Thomson group of newspapers.

He retired in 2006 and moved to Montreal but occasionally continues to write columns and features for the Seaway News, the Montreal Gazette, West End Times and the Times of India.

Sultan has been writing travel features and highlighting remarkable achievements of Ismailis in Canada.

 

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