Aidan Tooth is a Toronto-based dance artist; however, she wears more than one hat. She is also a self-taught photographer, currently making waves in the Toronto art-dance-photography scene. Keep reading to hear about Aidan’s story and how she followed her passions, leading her to where she is today.

So for those who are not familiar with you and your work, how would you describe your identity as an artist? What is it that you do?

For people that don’t know my work, I would describe myself and my identity as very much rooted in dance. Dance has been a huge part of my identity for so long. I also identify myself as someone willing to take risks and be creative, because that’s really all I’ve ever known.

I see that a lot of your work features dance photography. Tell us about your background in dance, and how you made your way to photography.

Before the pandemic, I was a dancer almost my whole life. I grew up competitively in dance, which then led me to move to New York after graduating high school. I attended The Ailey School, which was a wonderful program. I learned so much and my technique improved a lot, but the school wasn’t for me necessarily. It was a lot of modern and ballet and I wanted to do more contemporary, more freestyle movement. I decided to come back to Toronto, which is where I’m from, and try to pursue things here on my own as an independent artist. I was teaching and working as a dancer, and choreographing was kind of like the next step that I wanted to take in my career. That's when the pandemic hit and when I started photography. It had always been something that interested me greatly, but I just never had the time or the funds to fully invest myself in it. Plus dance took up most of my energy. So when the pandemic came around and I had all this free time, I decided to buy a camera and see how it went. I really didn’t have big plans when I did that. I was just tired of taking dance class over zoom in my basement. I started shooting with my dancer friends and then it kind of gradually snowballed from there.

(Photographed left to right: Kevin Lau, Kohana Haque, Lily MacMenemey, Martin Gratton)

Seeing you as a young entrepreneur is so inspiring! How did you kickstart your photography business?

As I said, I didn’t really plan to start a photography business. It just sort of happened. Nothing really kicked it off I guess. Just buying a camera and starting is the main way to go. I just started taking small steps to build my business. I was posting my work on my social media which then got people curious. People started reaching out about my rates, so that was one of the first things I started to think about if anyone were to inquire again, and then they did, so I decided to build a website. My website is basically somewhere I can send clients to. A place to showcase a professional portfolio that they can scroll through and see my rates. Just somewhere easy to find me and contact me overall.

How long have you been doing this for, and how has your work evolved over the years, if at all? What has it been like to pursue photography, and be an independent, freelance, self-employed artist?

I’ll be doing photography professionally since May 2020. My work has definitely changed since then. I mostly started out shooting outdoors because that’s was the easiest way to control lighting. I didn’t understand how to shoot in a studio so for the summer of 2020, I just remained outdoors. And then when winter came around I decided OK, I’m going to teach myself how to use studio lights, how to use strobes, how to manipulate lighting setups and backdrops. And because I forced myself to learn studio photography, now that is primarily what I do. I work in a studio. I experiment and it’s a lot of fun!

What were some challenges you’ve faced throughout this journey? Is there any advice you would give to your younger self or to any emerging photographers/artists?

To be honest, I’m still pinching myself. Like I said before, photography has always been a huge interest of mine, so to be able to say that I’m a professional photographer now pursuing it full-time is really just a dream come true.

That’s not to say it hasn’t been without its challenges, because you really need to have a lot of security to start your own business. A lot of time and money has to be invested into being self-employed, and that was a risk I was willing to make. Some advice I would give to emerging photographers or artists is to be OK with failing. Just know that progress is slow, it doesn’t happen overnight. I look back on my work from 2020 and I’m so grateful for how far I’ve come because I really had to be patient. Making goals that are ambitious but also attainable is also a great place to start because you have something to look forward to, something that you want to eventually accomplish. And when you do accomplish those goals it makes all the time and hard work so worth it.

What defines your signature style?

I guess I would define my signature style as, bold, colourful, expressive movement. I’ve struggled with trying to define my work entirely because I think I want to leave my options open and fluid. There are so many styles of photography I want to try.

Where do you hope your work will lead you to in the future? Say, in 5 years from now? Are there any bucket list passion projects/collaborations you hope to work on?

I really just hope my work leads me to become an established photographer in my field. I want to inspire other artists to pursue a career in photography. I would love to have my work published in magazines one day or on a billboard. That would be super cool. I would also love to work on a major brand campaign and break into the fashion industry a little more.

What are you up to these days- are there any upcoming projects of yours that we should look out for?

These days I am working with a lot of dancers, dance companies, and dance competitions because my background in dance really helps me in that regard. There are a couple of projects in the works, but I can’t necessarily talk about them right now.

Finally, what do you love most about your job?

I think what I love most about my job is the freedom to create my own schedule, do what I want, and do something that I actually enjoy- Not having to answer to anyone but myself and my own ambition. I’m also so grateful to be able to do something creative with my time, especially right now with everything going on in the world. I feel very fortunate to do what I do.

(Photographed from left to right: Martin Gratton, Cassidy Willox, River Ross, JJ Dance Arts)

Getting Behind the Camera with Aidan Tooth

Check out more of Aidan’s work here.