The Time Thief

Stealing time for future humans.

Steven CW Taylor is
“The Time Thief”

Cultural explorer, engineer, and photographer. Founder of Ubuntu Fine Art.
His work transforms observation into communion, using the camera as both a witness and a bridge between worlds.

Steven CW Taylor has traveled through 19 countries and four U.S. national parks, building a visual archive that reflects the quiet beauty of connection. Before dedicating himself to a life bridging cultures, Taylor spent 13 years as a software engineer for Booz Allen Hamilton, a career that trained his eye for structure, precision, and patience.

Ubuntu Fine Art, founded in Germantown, Philadelphia, in 2021, is the physical manifestation of that journey. It stands as both gallery and philosophy, a space built from the ground up to make fine art accessible, contemplative, and rooted in community.

His lens captures the small details that make culture visible. The ways people and places move, rest, and remember. Every image is crafted slowly, printed meticulously, and presented with reverence for time itself.

Taylor’s work is guided by Japanese and African philosophies: Ubuntu (shared humanity), Ikigai (life’s purpose), and Ishokenmei (wholehearted dedication). Each informs his approach to art as an act of attention and exchange.

Ubuntu Fine Art embodies these values through analog mindfulness—slowing down, crafting with care, and creating opportunities for reflection. The result is not just an image, but an experience that invites transformation.

Travel is central to Taylor’s process. His camera acts as both compass and companion, helping him navigate cultures while learning from their traditions. The knowledge gathered abroad and regionally returns home through Ubuntu Fine Art, where each exhibition becomes an offering of cultural exchange.

His collections span landscapes and portraits from Kenya, South Africa, Germantown, and several American national parks—each collection a study in patience, intimacy, and reverence.

Through Ubuntu Fine Art, Taylor redefines what a gallery can be: not just a showroom, but a living archive of community presence. His work has been collected by institutions, patrons, and cultural organizations who see art as dialogue, not decoration.

Each piece carries his intention to bridge cultures, elevate access, and remind us that art is a shared inheritance.