About Raj
Welcome, I’m Raj
A computer scientist turned personal brand photographer, trained speaker, and relationship coach. After two decades in the tech field, I left to pursue an unconventional passion— photography. Along the way, I found joy and freedom in telling my story and now I help my clients do the same.
My mission is to help you feel safe to express yourself fully as a human being. I believe that the best way for you to build your personal brand is to build a deep, genuine, loving connection – not just with your ideal audience, but with yourself.
You have a story to tell, and my goal is to help you find it and bring it to life not just through photos but through the confidence you’ll walk away with after working with me.
Here’s my own story…
How my partner’s gender transition put me on a path from an engineer to an artist.
I’m an immigrant. I moved to the US over 20 years ago for grad school. I did a PhD in Computer Science, then worked as a software engineer and data scientist for over a decade. But then I decided to leave it all to pursue my artistic purpose and passion: photography.
My tech career had left me feeling unfulfilled for a while. I had accomplished everything I was ‘supposed to’, but it all felt a bit hollow. I simply chalked it up to a normal, boring midlife crisis and kept plugging away.
Then, in 2017, my spouse of 7 years came out as transgender.
As he started his process of taking hormones as part of the female-to-male transition, I saw first-hand how much being true to himself transformed him positively, both in his career and as a person.
That made me wonder: What do I need to change in my life to feel more true to myself? After a lot of introspection and soul-searching, art and photography was my answer.
Because of my multicultural background, my career transition, and my unusual marriage, I’m used to bridging multiple worlds: Indian and Western, tech and art, straight and queer.
I bring all of that that to my photography and my work with you, to help tell your story in all its beautiful complexity and contradiction.
What I love about photography
I create art out of life. What fascinates me about photography is the privilege of hearing about the amazing journeys that people have led, collaborating with them and expressing that story through evocative, beautiful images.
The moments when a client looks at their images and tells me, “You captured exactly what I wanted to convey about myself. I feel so seen!” are the most rewarding moments for me.
Ultimately, we are our stories, and those stories are how we build relationships and connections in the world. My contribution to the world is to help people tell their stories in a way that’s evocative, captivating and authentic.
My Experience
I have a PhD in Computer Science and worked as a software engineer and data scientist. I can bring a deeply analytical lens to any work that I do. Working as an early employee in several tech startups taught me the importance of creating a top-notch client experience.
My journey from being an engineer to a creative/artist/photographer parallels what many of my clients are going through, going from a more conventional career to being an author, speaker or entrepreneur.
I've trained as a speaker through Heroic Public Speaking's Grad program, a 6-month intensive in the craft of writing and performing a keynote speech. I get what it takes to create an impactful speech, and I'll help you showcase those moments on camera.
Along the way, I trained as a relationship and Intimacy coach in the Somatica method. While I don't actively work as a coach, all of that training has taught me how to create a supportive, joyful and non-judgemental container for my clients.
Fun Facts
I enjoy cooking and am actually going to (part-time) culinary school right now.
In a past life looooong ago, I was a pretty good Salsa dancer and even did that competitively for a bit.
There's a patent out there with my name on it, using AI to detect scammy phone calls. You've probably benefited from that technology.
Sometimes I solve advanced math problems to relax (y'know, once an engineer ...)
I'm a 10/10 on the introvert scale, though I'm not shy. I originally got into photography because I realized when I had a camera in my hand at parties, people left me alone.
A lot of my life experience has been around bridging cultures and identities. I'm an immigrant twice over, a straight guy in a queer marriage, an artist who used to be an engineer. I bring all that life experience to my client work, particularly with clients who are also navigating an evolution in identity.
Check out some of my guest appearances
If you’re interested in collaborating or hiring me for an event, speaking opportunity, or podcast interview please reach out here or download my one sheet.
What People Are Saying About My Work!
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Meghna Majmudar
“ The process made me come back to myself. I operate in a way where I lose myself to my work and the people I’m working with. Going through the process itself changed what I was looking for, because there’s a lot of digestion that happens during the process.”
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Marcia Dawood
“I’ve done vision boards before for future plans, but I had never done something like this for myself or my brand. The exercise made me think about things I would never have otherwise.”
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Kat O'Sullivan
“My personality, my style – it has to be authentic because I want to attract like-minded people who value who I am and how I go about what I do. It’s very personal and vulnerable. That’s a keyword: vulnerable. You can hide in a business. You cannot hide in a personal brand. Focusing on my personal brand has helped me really show up.”
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Jackie Jackson
“I would say really anybody should do this if they want to have an experience of learning a lot more about themselves and how beautiful they are, just as they are.”