Ian Taylor: Photographer

04/18/2026

Happy to see that 101 Bridge Street in Picton, the Taylor family HQ for 50 years, is the subject of an episode of Sarah Keenleyside’s show. Nice that’s it’s getting a new lease on life in good hands. (Kind of sad to see it parked a few feet from some McBuilding though.)

In 1964, the house hadn’t been lived in during winters for decades; it had served as the summer home for the Cook family, owners of the Regent Theatre.

Legend says the house was built by a “remittance man,” the illegitimate son of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, following a dalliance at the Quebec City fort. If the stories are true, our home was built by Queen Victoria’s half-brother. Remittance men were embarrassments to the crown. They were given a salary and told to “go away and stay away.”

Though he was rumoured to be “crazy” and the resident ghost, we eight Taylors never actually saw it. We did, however, see the axe marks on the dining room’s pine floors where he supposedly chopped wood indoors. He was also considerate enough to design a front lawn perfect for baseball and frisbee. Between 101, 103, and 104 Bridge Street, there were 12 kids. PEC was a full of children back then. Not so much now.

It was fantastic that two generations of our family got to experience this home. I hope kids get to live once again at 101, but without the two acres of grass, it won’t be the same.

It was always funny in the ’80s and ’90s working in Toronto; literally 90% of people had never heard of Picton. (“No not Pickering/Pictou/Penticton - Picton!” Crickets.) We received far more visitors from Quebec and Ottawa than Toronto. Now Toronto knows about the County.

While the view from the road is the classic one, my favorite perspective is the view from across the harbour. And Jim’s drawing of course.

03/23/2026

Millions of Bats at the National Museum of Cambodia, January 1995 🇰🇭

For six years, this was the view from my terrace every evening, I never got tired of it. Every night, like clockwork, millions of bats would stream out of the roof of The សារមន្ទីរជាតិកម្ពុជា / National Museum of Cambodia.

Shortly after I left in 2000, the hole was plugged, ending this daily spectacle. Legend had it that the museum staff used to supplement their modest salaries by collecting and selling the guano, which, as it turns out, is some of the best natural fertilizer on Earth.

Watch the "Bat Stream" start here at 7:25: 👉 https://youtu.be/PqU95wEMEko?t=445

The footage also captures a very different Phnom Penh, as you can see from the dirt roads in the middle of town. Also some scenes from my workplace, The Cambodia Daily newspaper. (RIP)

Quality isn't great but it’s a record of a moment in time that is long gone. Phnom Penh in those days was rough but incredibly charming, the entire place was a jungle with gorgeous, but often decrepit, French buildings everywhere. Now the trees and the colonial architecture are mostly gone.
For the past 20+ years I've hung out in Battambang, which still feels like the Cambodia I discovered in 1994.

http://iantaylor.ca/https://www.facebook.com/IanTaylorPhotographyIn Jan '95 I borrowed a video camera and shot a bit around my neighbourhood and workplace. (...

03/22/2026

When parents in Hong Kong begin looking for a family photography studio, I think many of them overlook the most powerful option they have, their own home.

The number one reason to think about an at-home photoshoot is that the dynamic is completely flipped, the photographer is on the kids' turf, instead of the other way around.

This approach starts with zero stress. Often, within ten minutes, the kids completely ignore me. We just focus on activities they love: baking, reading, jumping on the bed, playing with the new puppy or kitten, or having a living room dance party. Quite often, I can completely stop suggesting things to do and disappear.

PM me for info on my upcoming availability in Hong Kong.

02/16/2026

Food Security in the Chittagong Hill Tracts for Helen Keller Intl

I've never met anyone who left Bangladesh unchanged. The reality differs dramatically from outsiders' perceptions.
With a population 25% larger than Russia compressed into a landmass the size of Iowa, the countryside's density is staggering. Everything shifts in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). Suddenly there are hills and sparse populations. The people resemble ethnic minorities from Northern Thailand, Laos, and Burma more than Bangladeshis.
These images document a project I did for Helen Keller Int'l in Khagrachari District, focusing on food security challenges facing the Chakma ethnic minority.
We trekked to remote villages that appeared verdant but faced extreme pressures:

One woman didn't know how she'd feed her children the next day
Another walked 10 kilometers each way to market weekly to sell $4 worth of products
Bengali settlers encroaching into the region, themselves desperate for land

The heavily militarized area required numerous permits and multiple checkpoints. Houses in one village we visited were burned shortly after we left. As always, it's women and kids who suffer most.
Despite challenges, Bangladesh has made remarkable progress through women's empowerment. Women now graduate secondary school at higher rates than men, and female employment has nearly doubled in 20 years.
Christopher Hitchens cited Bangladesh as "living proof" that "the only thing that has ever been discovered to work in the relief of poverty is the empowerment of women."
As they say: "Diplomats cry twice about Bangladesh: once when told it's their next posting, and once when told they have to leave."
And if anyone in Bangkok knows where to get authentic haleem, please let me know.

01/24/2026

Cambodian Kickboxing | 2006

Twenty years ago, I was in Battambang traveling to small villages with a local boxing club that staged Kun Khmer matches on temple grounds. (They called it 'Prodal Khmer', but 'Kun Khmer' seems to be used more now.)

While shooting, I remember thinking the audience was at least as interesting as what was happening in the ring. So I edited a bunch of shots I had never really looked at before.

Also some images from the pre-fight, when local boxers would arrive to get matched up. Not just local boys fighting, but little kids, young women, and hardened pros who'd fought in Thailand.

I went back in 2007 to spend the winter documenting more. By then, it was over. The traveling clubs of the Northwest were done.

01/22/2026

งานประดับพระพุทธรูปจากทีมงาน แสงตะวัน พระพุทธรูป
ปิดทองพระ วัดหนองงูเหลือม จังหวัดชลบุรี
Lian crystal rhinestone

12/10/2025

Mottoma, Burma
2003