Irreverent, informed and downright eclectic crime fiction and reportage from Southeast Asia and beyond
“I tried to capture not just the devotees’ tattoos but who they were. My models were rather shy at first. Most of them were male and taking their clothes off for a female photographer was definitely a challenge for them. But after I had taken a few shots, their confidence increased and they conveyed a [...]
Author Janet Brown has written a wonderful review on my new non fiction with photographer Hans Kemp, Burmese Light over at Once a Bookseller!!! “In their creative collaboration, Kemp and Vater provide a taste of a country that is transforming itself, documenting Burma as changes began to come. This is far from a typical coffee [...]
Burmese Light, my new non fiction with photographer Hans Kemp, was reviewed by Marco Ferrarese at Vagablogging, the acclaimed website of travel writer Rolf Potts. “Impressions of the Golden Land” is quite an apt subtitle for Burmese Light as this book literally brings to the table (a coffee-table, to be precise) two kinds of impressions. [...]
Here’s one for the budding and seasoned photographers. A new online photo service has just been launched called LightRocket (www.lightrocket.com). The service is the brainchild of Peter Charlesworth and Yvan Cohen, good friends both and the co-founders of OnAsia Images an online photo agency created over a decade ago representing a select group of professional [...]
The South East Asia Globe features my new non fiction Burmese Light – with acclaimed photographer Hans Kemp – this month. The book is on its way into shops and should be available on Amazon and elsewhere within the next week. In fact it’s been hovering around # 7 for books on Myanmar on Amazon [...]
Check out the book trailer for Burmese Light, my new non fiction book with photographer Hans Kemp, published by Visionary World this month. Reviews: “Whether you are planning a visit or have recently traveled to Myanmar, Hans Kemp’s magnificent photographs combined with Tom Vater’s illuminating text create an unforgettable portrait of a truly remarkable country [...]
Last month, we had a visit from veteran tattooist Bruce Bart and his wife Jennifer. They were on an Asian road trip and were looking for a tattoo master in Thailand. Their search, quite an adventure, eventually led them to Sacred Skin and to the house I share with my wife, photographer Aroon Thaewchatturat. This [...]
Writer Marco Ferrarese interviews photographer Hans Kemp, with whom I have just published Burmese Light, a new illustrated book on Burma. Read the full interview on Rolf Potts‘ celebrated blog Vagablogging here. Burmese Light: Impressions of the Golden Land is a photographic introduction to Myanmar, the country behind the Bamboo Curtain. Stunning images by award-winning [...]
Sacred Skin receives a great review from Danny Keens, Producer of 60 Minutes, on Amazon. Wonderful!!! When I stumbled upon this print collaboration between author Tom Vater and photographer Aroon Thaewchatturat I was taken completely by surprised and totally mesmerized. You see, I’m not the sort of person who would have considered a tattoo and [...]
The Orissa Post in India has rerun my very first story on Thailand’s sacred tattoos. The Illustrated Kill Convention originally ran in The Fortean Times (amazingly that story is still online but the first paragraphs are missing, eating by time or digital weasels, one assumes) in the UK in 2003 and subsequently in, dare I [...]