Snap Judgments
Insight Myanmar31 Loka 2025

Snap Judgments

Episode #423: Ian Taylor is a Canadian photographer whose life shifted from the film industry to decades of work and travel across Southeast Asia. His first experience was with a government-sponsored Asian Studies program in the early 1990s. His early visits to Burma during the junta’s “Visit Myanmar Year” left a strong impression, and he became involved for a short time in advertising there.

By the late 1990s, Taylor had left advertising for photography, focusing on family portraits and NGO assignments across Asia. A formative volunteer trip to Bangladesh further deepened his commitment to humanitarian work, and led him back to Burma.

Taylor left the country in 2015, but reconnected in 2023 through the Thailand-based Border Consortium (TBC). He soon embarked on a volunteer photo project in five refugee camps, describing them as “an active, bustling town with everything.” His photography resists exploitative “poverty porn” and favors portraits that reflect dignity and agency. “Every portrait, in some way, it’s a collaboration.”

Critical of the tourism industry’s distortions, Taylor remains focused on authenticity, connection, and service. In his words: “If you could go to a holiday in the Maldives or something... well, I’d rather go [to a refugee camp]!”

Jaksot(507)

Rangoon Confidential

Rangoon Confidential

Episode #344: Dominic Faulder’s decades of reporting on Myanmar began serendipitously in 1981, when a Thai coup disrupted his travel plans and led to an impromptu journey to Burma for Thingyan. He was...

13 Touko 20252h 16min

On The Waterfront

On The Waterfront

Episode #343: “I literally thought the world was crumbling!” Chloe, a young woman born and raised in Myanmar’s Inle Lake region, speaks viscerally about the country’s recent, devastating earthquake. T...

9 Touko 20251h 6min

An Irish Bhikkhu in Burma

An Irish Bhikkhu in Burma

Episode #342: Dhammaloka, born Laurence Carroll in Dublin around 1856, was a unique figure in the history of Buddhism and anti-colonial resistance. Much of what we know today about Dhammaloka comes fr...

6 Touko 20252h 16min

The Unfriendly Skies

The Unfriendly Skies

Episode #341: As the military has suffered setbacks in the field, its use of indiscriminate aerial bombing has only increased, taking a deadly toll on civilians and leaving a legacy of trauma for surv...

2 Touko 20251h 49min

Lost In Translation

Lost In Translation

Episode #340: Having taught at Payap University in Chiang Mai from 2016–2022, Tony Waters mentored doctoral students grappling with Myanmar’s long history of war, repression, and foreign interference....

29 Huhti 20251h 35min

Whose Byline Is It Anyway?

Whose Byline Is It Anyway?

Episode #339: Aung, a full-time journalist and women’s rights activist, sheds light on the many hardships Myanmar’s journalists now face both operating from within and without the country following th...

25 Huhti 20251h 19min

Emergency Declined

Emergency Declined

Episode #338: “[The quake] revealed the tragic disconnect between the government's understanding—or perhaps, willingness to communicate—the severity of the disaster and the actual level of risk facing...

22 Huhti 202553min

The Start of a Path

The Start of a Path

Episode #337: U Jagara's journey is characterized by a deep commitment to spiritual practice, resilience, and the pursuit of authenticity. Growing up in a small town in Quebec, his early life was mark...

18 Huhti 20251h 37min

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