Aaron Joel Santos

Editorial

A collection of editorial and environmental portraits from travel assignments, documentary projects, and personal works around Southeast Asia and beyond--including artists, authors, musicians, fashion designers, war veterans, and other amazing people I've met throughout the years. 

  • A portrait of Lady Borton, a US-born Quaker activist who spent years during and after the American-Vietnam War with the AFSC in Quang Ngai Province in central Vietnam.
  • A portrait of Alison Taylor, the founding designer behind Sula Clothing in the UK.
  • A portrait of Vietnamese performance artist Dao Anh Khanh at his home in Hanoi.
  • A portrait of Do Tan Thanh, a survivor of the My Lai Massacre in central Vietnam who lost an eye, arm, and most of his leg on March 16, 1968.
  • A young Vietnamese man in dappled sunlight.
  • An inmate at Klong Prem prison in Bangkok, Thailand. The inmate is part of a program that pits prisoners against foreign Muay Thai fighters for a chance of reduced sentencing or early release.
  • A man poses with an elephant at a commercial spice plantation in Goa, India.
  • A portrait of Ruben Enaje, who has been playing the role of Jesus Christ during the Holy Week festival in Cutud since 1985. Every year, Ruben nails himself to a cross to atone for his sins and ask God for blessings in the years to come.
  • Bob Velez, a 76-year-old Filipino man from the town of Cutud who has been nailing himself to a cross every Good Friday since 1979.
  • A portrait of Tu in makeup after a cabaret show at her home in Pattaya, Thailand.
  • An inmate at Klong Prem prison in Bangkok, Thailand. The inmate is part of a program that pits prisoners against foreign Muay Thai fighters for a chance of reduced sentencing or early release.
  • A portrait of a young Vietnamese bride in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
  • A portrait of architect Duangrit Bunnag with his cat and Airstream trailer in Bangkok, Thailand.
  • A portrait of Chinese artist Ye Yongqing at his home in Dali.
  • A portrait of a Chamorro seafarer, holding the axe he uses to build canoes in Guam.
  • Portraits of two Japanese women on the southern island of Kyushu in Japan.
  • A portrait of a young Vietnamese woman refracted in a glass door in Saigon.
  • A portrait of a bartender at Ne Bar in Hanoi, Vietnam.
  • A portrait of Name, a 19-year-old transgender woman in Phrae, Thailand. Name has been taking hormones, in the form of over-the-counter birth control pills, since she was 13 years old.
  • A portrait of a young Thai clothing designer in Bangkok.
  • A portrait of Phoowanath Chumsrikarin, the owner of the Floral Cafe at Napasorn in Bangkok.
  • Kenny and Andrew, founders of Depression clothing in Singapore.
  • A portrait of apparently rebellious Japanese schoolgirls in Kyushu, Japan.
  • A woman carrying cooking supplies and a mesh bag filled with leaves on a tea plantation in the hills of Sri Lanka.
  • A portrait of Aen, an Air Force Communications Officer and part-time hairdresser in Bangkok, Thailand.
  • A portrait of Thanongsi Sorangkan, the owner of an organic farm and one of the accidental founders of the tubing phenomenon in Vang Vien, Laos.
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