Audio Transcript: It was several years ago when I first starting photographing myself. The color of my skin was a problem for people, so I would get anonymous comments that either my skin was too dark, too ashy, or they look like hockey pucks. But I think also in a way it's a way for you to grow, and in the end it actually made me much more strong and confident about myself.

My name is Nik Sharma; I am a food writer and a food photographer. So I brought my hands with me today, that was my object of healing.

I like that it represents me, but more so that it’s become a symbol for people who don’t get represented and in that sense, that’s a really cool part for me to kind of extend any success that I have with other people that deserve it.

One of the things that I wanted to do when I shot food was people of color. Being a person of color, that was important to me, and I felt there was underrepresentation in food media in general. Also the people that had worked in kitchens were never brought to the forefront and a lot of them were people from different backgrounds, people from different countries, people with different sexualities, different skin color. So it was important for me to represent that in my work and unknowingly, the color of my skin became a very important marker for me in me establishing myself as a food writer and a photographer because I found confidence in myself through my skin color.