Brent Lewin Commercial Photography

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  • An elephant scratches its head on a wall at an abandoned housing development in Bang Bua Thong, Thailand. Many of the elephants are covered in white concrete residue from scratching themselves on the walls of the unfinished homes. The project was abandoned when the developer went bankrupt during the Asian Economic Crisis in 1997. What remain are concrete foundations where many Thais squat and live for free. In one section 5 rice-growing families from Buriram Province stay with their 10 domesticated elephants. Elephants, revered symbols of Thailand’s glorified past, have long walked side by side with the monarchy and common farmers alike. The indispensable role of elephants in Thai society has been captured in countless tales and works of art.  Once a symbol of honour, dignity and the engine of rural development, many of these once proud creatures have been left on the fringes of Thailand’s modern economy and have come to represent the failures and inequity of economic development.
  • A close-up of an elephants eye at an abandoned housing development in Bang Bua Thong, Thailand. The project was abandoned when the developer went bankrupt during the Asian Economic Crisis in 1997. What remain are concrete foundations where many Thais squat and live for free. In one section 5 rice-growing families from Buriram Province stay with their 10 domesticated elephants. Elephants, revered symbols of Thailand’s glorified past, have long walked side by side with the monarchy and common farmers alike. The indispensable role of elephants in Thai society has been captured in countless tales and works of art.  Once a symbol of honour, dignity and the engine of rural development, many of these once proud creatures have been left on the fringes of Thailand’s modern economy and have come to represent the failures and inequity of economic development.
  • A mahout prepares his elephant for a day of work logging in an area near Honga in Lao PDR. Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), a country once named Lan Xang or ‘the land of one million elephants,’ has long had a strong historical and spiritual bond with the elephant. Nowadays approximately 10,000 people live on the income generated by domesticated elephants primarily in the logging industry. Sadly these elephants contribute to the destruction of their natural habitat. Lao PDR, a mountainous, poor, and sparsely populated country has had its forest cover reduced to 40% by commercial logging.The country is also seeing its elephant population plummet at an alarming rate. Traditionally elephants from wild populations were captured and domesticated by skilled mahouts. In the past, elephants were employed two or three hours a day to bring rice from the harvest, to carry firewood and to help build houses. Now they are employed in logging camps and typically work at a furious pace of eight hours a day. The elephants are overworked, exhausted, isolated from each other and therefore do not reproduce.  For every 2 births there are 10 deaths among the domesticated population and if this trend remains unchanged, domesticated elephants are likely to disappear by 2060.
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  • Awe Phan, age 53, poses for a photo in Myanmar's Chin State. The sparsely populated Chin State is home several subgroups all calling themselves Zo-mi meaning 'mountain people.' Separated from the rest of Myanmar (formerly Burma) by mountains and being a travel restricted State for foreigners, the Chin have little contact with the modern world. Historically the Chin were adored for their beauty and King's would come to villages to steal men's wives. As a measure against their women being stolen, village elders started tattooing teenage girls to make them 'ugly'. The tradition stuck and over generations eventually lost it's original meaning of ugliness and came to represent courage, beauty and strength. However, as these traditional groups began moving outside their villages, the struggle between tradition and modernity has placed tribal Chin culture under increasing threat of being absorbed by the dominant Burmese. Unique language, customs and dress have been abandoned. Under this pressure to assimilate, the practice of facial tattooing has also been discontinued. Currently there remain only a handful of women adorning facial tattoos.
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  • Petch Osathanugrah, chairman and chief executive officer of Osotspa Pcl.
  • TORONTO, JULY 31, 2011 -- HANDSOME FURS -- Handsome Furs' Alexei Perry, left, and Dan Boeckner, pose for a photo at The Gladstone Hotel in Toronto on Sunday July 31, 2011. Photo by Brent Lewin for National Post (For Arts & Entertainment story by Mike Doherty)
  • Philip Lowe, Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia
  • Garbage, Garfield Wright Material Recovery Facility, East Gwillimbury. Globally, societies have grown accustomed to an unprecedented level of consumption, to a limitless supply of canned, bagged, boxed and packaged items that feed growing appetites. So commonplace and ubiquitous is this endless stream of goods that this has become a frame of reference for many of us, the norm, with little or no recollection of a time when we didn’t need quite so much. Door-to-door visits by waste removal, recycling and compost trucks relieve each individual home of the end products of this consumption. This allows us to avoid acknowledging the sheer scale of the levels of consumption that characterize the world’s most prosperous nations, including Canada, and urban centres in particular. The impacts of such actions are not confined to national borders. Consumption habits, at once a cause and a result of the complex relationships of supply and demand that characterize the modern age, have become a model for countries around the world. This model threatens to exhaust all that the planet has to offer.The images in the series Want Not, Waste Not were photographed at various tipping floors and material recovery facilities in the greater Toronto area. They are simple images with a simple message: humans produce an enormous amount of waste, and it does not disappear when it leaves one’s front lawn.
  • Garbage, Ingram Transfer Station, Toronto. Globally, societies have grown accustomed to an unprecedented level of consumption, to a limitless supply of canned, bagged, boxed and packaged items that feed growing appetites. So commonplace and ubiquitous is this endless stream of goods that this has become a frame of reference for many of us, the norm, with little or no recollection of a time when we didn’t need quite so much. Door-to-door visits by waste removal, recycling and compost trucks relieve each individual home of the end products of this consumption. This allows us to avoid acknowledging the sheer scale of the levels of consumption that characterize the world’s most prosperous nations, including Canada, and urban centres in particular. The impacts of such actions are not confined to national borders. Consumption habits, at once a cause and a result of the complex relationships of supply and demand that characterize the modern age, have become a model for countries around the world. This model threatens to exhaust all that the planet has to offer.The images in the series Want Not, Waste Not were photographed at various tipping floors and material recovery facilities in the greater Toronto area. They are simple images with a simple message: humans produce an enormous amount of waste, and it does not disappear when it leaves one’s front lawn.
  • Pineapple Farmer, Thailand
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  • A tailings pond at a 'tar sands' mining site near Fort McMurray, Canada
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  • Indians celebrate the Holi fesitval of colours inside Vrindavan's Banke Bihari temple. Of the many festivals in India, Holi is among the most vibrant and joyous. It is a unique celebration in that India shuts down completely and people take to the streets to douse each other in coloured powder, or gulal, and literally paint the town red. Cultural norms are suspended in the name of fun and distinctions of caste and religion are forgotten.
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  • Recording Artists D-Sisive, left, Famous, Cadence Weapon, Muneshine, Shad, Saukrates, Buck 65 and Maestro Fresh Wes
  • A camel trader poses for a photo in Pushkar. Each year at the time of the Kartik Purnima full moon, Rabari and up to 20,000 camels descend on the sand dunes surrounding Pushkar to take part in the world’s largest camel fair. The Rabari, a tribal group found in India's Rajasthan State, historically were guardians of the camel. An emblem of Rajasthan, the camel symbolizes love in folklore, and ownership once signaled status and wealth. The camel was used in warfare by the Maharajahs and played an important role in desert communication, transportation and trade. The Rabari way of life is becoming increasingly difficult as they are losing access to grazing lands which they used for centuries on seasonal migrations. Over the past decade the one humped camel has has experienced a decline in its population, estimated to be about 50%.
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  • The sun sets over Neilson Park on Friday as the Scarborugh Stingers take on the East York Bulldogs as part of the 2007 TBA PeeWee AAA Championships. Scarborough defeated East York 13-1.
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  • Jareeporn Jarukornsakul, Chief Executive Officer of WHA Corp.
  • Billionaire Lui Che Woo, chairman and founder of Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd.
  • Portfolio
  • Corporate and Industrial
    • Oyu Tolgoi Copper Gold Mine, Mongolia
    • Samroiyod Pineapples, Thailand
    • NBC/Universal, 'This Is Us', Vietnam
  • Events
    • Wonderfruit, Thailand
    • UEFA Champions League Trophy Tour, Cambodia
    • UFC, Macau
    • Heineken F1, Vietnam
  • NGO
    • Rathole Mining - Impulse, India
    • Thai Fisheries, The Freedom Fund, Thailand
    • Waste Management, United Nations, Sri Lanka
    • HIV Orphans , Home Hug Orphanage, Thailand
  • Restaurant
  • Portraits
  • Motion
  • Documentary and Editorial
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