Image: The late Chandra Bodalia, prolific BC photojournalist. / Provided / University of the Fraser Valley

By Fraser Valley Today Staff

PHOTO LEGACY

UFV honours South Asian-Canadian history through over 400 boxes of B.C. photographer’s work

Mar 8, 2025 | 3:30 PM

ABBOTSFORD — The University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) has partnered with the Royal BC Museum and the BC Archives to sort, preserve and digitize more than three million historical photos.

B.C. photojournalist Chandravadan “Chandra” Bodalia entrusted his work to his family when he passed away in 2017, and his family elected to donate the collection to UFV’s South Asian Studies Institute (SASI).

Over 400 boxes of photos, invoices, business cards and event posters were included in the set, documenting hundreds of South Asian cultural events, political rallies, and parties from the 1980s onward.

Image: Over 400 boxes of Chandra Bodalia’s photos are being preserved at UFV’s South Asian Studies Institute. / Provided / University of the Fraser Valley

“Our culture, religion, politics, contributions and practices don’t show up in the Canadian record,” says Dr. Satwinder Bains, Director of SASI. “Chandra’s work is a national treasure. The photographs show that South Asians were everywhere. We’re not just arrived, we’re not temporary citizens, we were and are contributing partners in Canadian living.”

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SASI has enlisted the help of UFV students to sort the large collection. Bodalia kept every receipt from the London Drugs on East Hastings, where he made all his prints. He printed duplicates of every photo on his own dime, carefully labelled each envelope, and then sorted them by date and category: “Parties” and “Media.”

Image: Dr. Satwinder Bains and Vimal Bodalia, the photographer’s son, look through the collection on the day of the donation. / Provided / University of the Fraser Valley

“Although Chandra was a man of few words, he spoke through the photos,” says Thamilini Jothilingam, SASI’s digital asset archivist. “They are a beautiful way of seeing his inner world.”

When complete, the digitized collection will be available to view on the South Asian Canadian Digital Archive. More information about SASI’s work with Bodalia’s photos can be found here.