Medford Taylor was born in North Carolina in 1939. He grew up in the small town of Conway and graduated with a BS (pre-med/biology) from High Point University.
After five years active duty as a U.S. Navy officer he attended the Univ. of Missouri Photojournalism Workshop. The workshop was a life-changing event. At its conclusion, he knew he would be a photographer for life.
In 1968 he abandoned the classroom of the Univ. of Missouri Graduate School of Journalism to photograph the Poor People’s March from Marks, Mississippi. He then joined the staff of the Houston Chronicle and later was staff photographer at the Virginian Pilot in Norfolk.
Since 1974 he has worked on assignment for TIME Magazine, Newsweek, GEO, Air & Space Magazine, National Geographic Magazine and National Geographic Traveler.
His photographs have been published in books and periodicals thru out the world. He has received awards from the Virginia News Photographers Assoc., the White House news Photographers Assoc. and the Slover Award from the Virginian Pilot.
His National Geographic story on Australia’s ‘Dog Fence’ was exhibited at Visa pour L’Image in Perpignon, France in 1997. In 2002 he published his first book, Saltwater Cowboys: A Photographic Essay of Chincoteague Island.
In September-October 2009, his most recent work, Silent Journey, was a solo exhibition at the Babcock Fine Arts Center Gallery at Sweet Briar College, Amherst, Virginia. Silent Journey is a work in progress on the interdependent culture of the state of Michoacán, Mexico and it’s monarch butterfly sanctuaries.
He received a fellowship from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in October 2009.
He lives in Richmond, Virginia.