Taylor
grew up near Seattle in an art-aware environment
and took to music at an early age. After high school
he entered the University of Washington College
of Architecture, but by the time he was 21 he was
playing several musical instruments and soon moved
to California to start a band.
After
spending several years in the San Francisco Bay
Area, he moved to Los Angeles. Then after three
bands and seven years of heat and smog, he set out
looking for a cooler and greener place to live.
In
December 1984, in the middle of the rainy season,
he moved to Mendocino, California. In his first
week there, he "discovered" mushrooms,
bought a camera, and started taking photos.
After
a year of customizing his equipment and focusing
his direction, he presented his first slide show
for the Los Angeles Mycological Society annual fair.
Since then, he has taken thousands of photos and
done hundreds of shows in the U.S. and around the
world.
In
1996, Taylor bought a computer and learned quickly
how to work with graphics programs in order to "spread
the word" about the beauty of this facet of
nature. Praise for his work and vision to promote
the beauty of mushrooms has gained him acclaim with
mycologists, mushroom enthusiasts, photography critics,
and nature lovers around the world.
His
work has appeared in the National Geographic Magazine, the New York Times, the Washington
Post, and many other publications. His photo of a bioluminescent mushroom was the first mushroom photo ever put onto a US postage stamp. Like many other
amateur and professional mycologists, Taylor is
a pioneer in the discovery and appreciation
of mushrooms and other fungi.