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)

Taming the Tiger

Taming the Tiger

Episode #230: “Unfortunately, in 2020, after the NLD won a landslide election, there was a military coup. And [then] the PDF resistance started. I took part in the resistance as I had years before, bu...

16 Huhti 20241h 40min

Leon Kennedy

Leon Kennedy

Episode #229: Leon Kennedy's life is a chronicle of personal struggle. Growing up in an era of historical significance, his parents were heavily involved in the Civil Rights Movement, with figures lik...

9 Huhti 20242h 10min

Shan Chronicles

Shan Chronicles

Episode #228: Jane Ferguson speaks about her recent book, Repossessing Shanland: Myanmar, Thailand, and a Nation-State Deferred. The book’s title refers to Shan attempts to reclaim their land and comm...

2 Huhti 20242h 13min

Above the Fray

Above the Fray

Episode #227: Nathan Ruser, a specialist at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), is an expert in geo-mapping. Building on his experience using satellite imagery to track human rights viol...

26 Maalis 20242h 1min

The Long Road Home

The Long Road Home

Episode #226: After the National League for Democracy (NLD) party’s landslide victory in 2015, Ko Ko Gyi remembers thinking to himself, “Okay, this is the time to retire from my activism, so let's jus...

22 Maalis 20241h 13min

Jonathan Crowley, Part 3

Jonathan Crowley, Part 3

Episode #225: In this third part of the ongoing discussion with Jonathan Crowley, we delve deeper into his experiences as an Assistant Teacher in the S.N. Goenka tradition of Vipassana meditation. Jon...

19 Maalis 20242h 9min

Rage Against the Regime

Rage Against the Regime

Episode #224: Saw Htee Char, working under a pseudonym for safety reasons, has been heavily involved in Myanmar since the devastating Cyclone Nargis in 2008. Recognizing a significant gap in accessibl...

12 Maalis 20241h 46min

Thinzar Shunlei Yi

Thinzar Shunlei Yi

Episode #223: Raised in a Myanmar military compound, Thinzar Shunlei Yi grew up sheltered from her nation's realities. University life exposed her to diverse ethnic narratives, challenging her militar...

5 Maalis 20242h 22min

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