Ramii Studio founder and photographer Abhi Chinniah says costs for fine artists in Aotearoa are rising.
Ramii Studio founder and photographer Abhi Chinniah says costs for fine artists in Aotearoa are rising.
Ramii Studio founder Abhi Chinniah has been making strides in Aotearoa’s fine arts scene through visually striking and endlessly creative portrayals of the migrant and refugee experience.
The Christchurch-born artist, now based in Auckland, featured alongside groundbreaking Kiwi artists such as Wellington’s Adrienne Martyn in the most recent edition ofArt New Zealand.
What is Ramii Studio?
Ramii Studio is a portrait photography business centred around community spaces. Often my commissions will involve community groups or organisations looking to photograph their team events or anything around bringing a community together.
Outside of that, my fine art portraiture has more of a fine art focus. All of it has been around the migrant and refugee experience in a documentary style.
I will photograph a person in an Aotearoa landscape and give them the agency to tell their own story about their cultural identity, migration journey and how they preserve cultural traditions being removed from their roots.
The Dancer, from Abhi Chinniah's No.13.
A lot of it is mixed media, so I often will have music, moving images, audio and essays.
Ramii Studio was called the Side Project when it was conceived in 2016, then became Ramii Studio as my storytelling developed.
My most recent work, No.13 is my first photo essay that departs from my documentary style of storytelling. I’ve moved into narrative portraits and it’s a story of mental health.
How did you get into fine arts?
It started very slow because I’m self-taught. I was working full-time in marketing and would use whatever money I had from that to rent art spaces and print my work. I still work in marketing and have a degree in marketing and business management. I’ve been in that scene for nine years now.
Photography has been part of my life going back to when I was 13 or 14 years old. Growing up on the Malaysian east coast, all our social interactions revolved around the Rotary Club. My father has always been very active in the community.
Abhi Chinniah's works were featured at Te Atamira, Queenstown this year.
He got a Sony point-and-shoot camera because he wanted to capture rotary dinners - that was the social event.
I quickly started using the camera. I would take portraits of my friends. It was really similar to what I do now but a less refined version.
At 18, I was back in New Zealand. I did a year of high school, then went to university to study law which turned into accounting, then marketing.
In my first full-time office job, I was in the hair and beauty industry and that’s where I found photography again. I would photograph and interview people who came into salons and write photo essays.
During the pandemic, my full-time role was made redundant, which forced me to look at my art a bit more closely.
Abhi Chinniah produced A Migrant's Path in 2021 to reflect her journey settling in New Zealand.
What are the biggest challenges you’ve had in business?
The price of equipment has been a barrier. The cost of finding exhibition spaces, printing, and buying props and software. There’s camera wear and tear you have to factor in.
Income is inconsistent and low.
It takes time to come up with ideas and edit photos to fit your aesthetic. That can take a long time and is often not paid.
All the costs around me have gone up, but my asking rate can’t go up. As my work started getting picked up, it would go into community galleries and there can be fees associated with that.
Marigold Hands from Abhi Chinniah's 2022 collection, Melanin Rising.
What kind of support is needed for fine artists?
You have to have a side gig that gives you stability. It’s a hell of a lot of work because you’re working full-time essentially and not seeing money for it. But I have learned I need to hold on to marketing because otherwise my bills won’t get paid.
Ramii Studio does grow as I have most of this year. I had commissions every couple of months, but the pay is different to a steady income.
You need to keep a foot in the door [for paid work]. And until art can become that for me, I still have to keep that foot in the door.
So many times people assume photography is just a hobby. Even when I started, I remember thinking, it’s not a hobby. It’s a career and a business.
What is your biggest achievement in business?
When my work was acquired by the National Library.
I was featured in Art New Zealand this month. When they got in touch with me, I couldn’t believe it. It’s a huge achievement for me, especially as an outsider to the industry.
Being a minority everywhere I’ve existed and coming from generations who passed that down have made me want to be in spaces where I see people who look like me and showcase people that I don’t see in mainstream spaces.
Because I went from being self-taught and not comfortable calling myself an artist, it’s exciting to be in the company of extremely experienced and well-known artists.
Alka Prasad is an Auckland-based business reporter covering small business and retail.
