Profile: Jason Taylor

Jason Taylor’s work has always focused on development issues, using a methodology that includes participatory research, understanding the complexities of an issue and looking at ways to communicate this in a dignified and compassionate way.

By adopting a holistic approach to visual documentation, his work examines not only the core issue but also some of the environment that surrounds it.

A few years ago he moved into film as primary medium, working on large multi-media products with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the International Development Research Council (IDRC) based in India. One of his projects was a series of 13 films on post-disaster agricultural projects for the IDRC.

Rather than just present the problems, his work aims to stimulate people into some kind of compassionate consciousness, creating a softer entry point into a world very much removed and foreign to theirs, while leaving space for people to then question and explore more detailed analysis.

On Al Jazeera Frames you can watch his films The Golden Temple, which takes a look at one of the largest free kitchens in the world, A Better Life, which follows one family’s search for a better life, and Slum Boy, a film about life in the shantytown of Kibera.