Jonathan Taylor – Agent Orange, Bangkok's Sex Industry, and Asia's Darker Side

Posted on 06. Mar, 2007 by Brandon in Photography, Recommended Sites

Stillborn babies in glass containers, horrifically disabled children, and teenage drug users aren’t the typical subject for a photographer. Jonathan Taylor, a photographer based in Bangkok has captured these issues with startling clarity. Many of his shots aren’t for the faint-hearted; they will take your breath away.

His series on Agent Orange is absolutely heartbreaking. These images raise awareness about important topics that need to be heard. These aren’t the type of photographs that one would say, “oh that’s nice”. These are raw, visceral, and possibly disturbing. Whatever your opinion may be on these topics, the images deserve to be seen.

From his bio:

Well known for his gritty, black-and-white images of cops, hit men, drug addicts and crime scenes, photographer Jonathan Taylor has traveled all over Asia to report on everything from Agent Orange victims in Vietnam to a special police unit in Bangkok that helps pregnant women, stuck in traffic, give birth. But versatility is the 41-year-old Englishman’s stock in trade. He also has a talent for shooting color portraits and even wildlife. On two occasions, his features have graced the cover of TIME Magazine. Many of his images have appeared in international publications like London’s Sunday Times Magazine, Marie Claire as well as the Guardian Magazine, Stern and the New York Times Magazine. A resident of Bangkok since the early ’90s, Taylor’s eye-opening work is extremely well regarded.

He also runs Photography School Asia, based in Bangkok. They offer courses, classes, and tours in Bangkok, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.

More of his work can be seen on his website: www.jonathantaylor.net or via his flickr site.

Tags: Photography, Recommended Sites

Apachu

You should be taking pictures like that! Those penbantus that sneak out at night? follow them. I shoot at 1250 ASA with the 5D (set to monochrome) and it rocks..so get out there and take pix!!!!!!

Brandon

I know, I guess the "perpetual optimism" photographs get old huh?

Why are you shooting in monochrome, just wondering. If you shoot in color and then convert to bw via PS then you have the color version waiting for you as well. You double your potential images from a shoot. Unless, of course, you KNOW that you only are into the bw aspect. ;)

Jonathan taylor

.....I agree with Brandon, CS 3s great convert to B/W ability allows you to adjust RGB and CYMK channels when in Raw or later when using Photoshop. Why lose that control at the camera stage. With CS 2 you can do the same thing using the adjust channels layer. With CS3 it becomes even easier.

Mind you I was out with three world press winners yesterday and none of them shoot Digi yet. I have changed over to digital but in the last two years I am only proud of two of my recent pictures.

Why change over then eh?

22 year old picture editors can't get the true concept of what we are trying to achieve or maybe I am a dinosaur. But they have pages to fill on limited budgets and on tight deadlines. I know what that feels like from my stint as a picture editor on a daily.

All my B/W pictures on my website and published with the heavies are done with film, chemicals, fiber based paper and human errors.

I personal get more empathy from picture shot this way.

Best wishes,

JT.