Larry Towell
Encyclopedia
Larry Towell is a Canadian
photographer, poet
, and oral historian
.
Towell grew up in a large family in rural Ontario
and studied visual arts at York University
in Toronto
where his interest in photography first began. Towell volunteered to work in Calcutta
, India
, in 1976 where he became interested in questions about the distribution of wealth and issues of land and landlessness.
Returning to Canada, Towell taught folk music and wrote poetry and then became a freelance photographer in 1984. His early work included projects on the Contra war in Nicaragua
, the civil war in El Salvador, relatives of the disappeared in Guatemala
, and American Vietnam War
veterans who worked to rebuild Vietnam
. His first magazine essay looked at the ecological damages from the Exxon Valdez oil spill
.
In 1988, Towell joined the Magnum photo agency
, becoming the first Canadian associated with the group and he has had picture essays published in The New York Times
, Life
, Rolling Stone
, and other magazines. His work has included documentation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Mennonite
migrant workers in Mexico
, and a personal project on his family's farm in southern Ontario. He always works with traditional film, eschewing digital options: “Black and white is still the poetic form of photography. Digital is for the moment; black and white is an investment of time and love.” He has also worked with panoramic cameras, which allow him to shoot the “landscapes of destruction”--looking at human beings and their place in the landscape.
Towell’s bibliography includes books of photographs, poetry, and oral history. He has also recorded several audio CDs of original poetry and songs. Towell lives in rural Lambton County Ontario and sharecrops a 75-acre farm with his wife Ann and their four children.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
photographer, poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, and oral historian
Oral history
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews...
.
Towell grew up in a large family in rural Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
and studied visual arts at York University
York University
York University is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, Ontario's second-largest graduate school, and Canada's leading interdisciplinary university....
in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
where his interest in photography first began. Towell volunteered to work in Calcutta
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, in 1976 where he became interested in questions about the distribution of wealth and issues of land and landlessness.
Returning to Canada, Towell taught folk music and wrote poetry and then became a freelance photographer in 1984. His early work included projects on the Contra war in Nicaragua
Contras
The contras is a label given to the various rebel groups opposing Nicaragua's FSLN Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction government following the July 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle's dictatorship...
, the civil war in El Salvador, relatives of the disappeared in Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, and American Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
veterans who worked to rebuild Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
. His first magazine essay looked at the ecological damages from the Exxon Valdez oil spill
Exxon Valdez oil spill
The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on March 24, 1989, when the Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker bound for Long Beach, California, struck Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef and spilled of crude oil. It is considered to be one of the most devastating human-caused...
.
In 1988, Towell joined the Magnum photo agency
Magnum Photos
Magnum Photos is an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices located in New York, Paris, London and Tokyo...
, becoming the first Canadian associated with the group and he has had picture essays published in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
, Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, and other magazines. His work has included documentation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Mennonite
Mennonite
The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after the Frisian Menno Simons , who, through his writings, articulated and thereby formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders...
migrant workers in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, and a personal project on his family's farm in southern Ontario. He always works with traditional film, eschewing digital options: “Black and white is still the poetic form of photography. Digital is for the moment; black and white is an investment of time and love.” He has also worked with panoramic cameras, which allow him to shoot the “landscapes of destruction”--looking at human beings and their place in the landscape.
Towell’s bibliography includes books of photographs, poetry, and oral history. He has also recorded several audio CDs of original poetry and songs. Towell lives in rural Lambton County Ontario and sharecrops a 75-acre farm with his wife Ann and their four children.
Selected awards
- 2009: The World From My Front Porch, Top ten best photo books of 2008, Photo-Eye
- 2009: The World From My Front Porch, And/or Photography Book Award(Kraszna-Krausz Foundation, UK- shortlisted)
- 2009: The World From My Front Porch, One of “50 Best” photo books of the year. Festival Of The Photograph. Charlottesville, VA
- 2008: One of the year’s best pictures, Photo District News
- 2007: Achievement In Filmmaking Award, New York Independent Film And Video Festival
- 2007: Alicia Patterson Award (USA, Finalist)
- 2006: PDN Photo Annual: One of the year’s best projects
- 2000: Society for News Design Award, La Nacion
- 2000: Photo-eye Award, Citation of Excellence
- 1999: Hasselblad FoundationHasselblad FoundationThe Erna and Victor Hasselblad Foundation, established in 1979, is a fully independent, not-for-profit foundation. The main aim of the Foundation is to promote research and academic teaching in the natural sciences and photography. The Foundation also presents an annual international award in...
Award - 1999: Roloff Beny Book Award
- 1999: Picture Of the Year (Best Use of Photography in Books)
- 1998: 1st Prize, Alfred Eisenstadt Award
- 1998: ‘Pictoral’ Prize, Pictures of the Year Foundation, University of Missouri
- 1998: Overseas Press ClubOverseas Press ClubThe Overseas Press Club of America was founded in 1939 in New York City by a group of foreign correspondents. The wire service reporter Carol Weld was a founding member...
, New York, Citation of Excellence - 1998: Society of Publication Designers, Magazine of the Year,"The New York Times"
- 1998: Society of Publication Designers, Merit Award, "The New York Times Magazine"
- 1997: Golden Light (Best Monograph Award)
- 1996: Oscar Barnack Award
- 1996: El Mundo Award
- 1995: Ernst Haas Foundation Award
- 1994/95: Gold Medal, Canadian National Awards
- 1994: Picture of the Year, Canon Photo Essay Award
- 1994: World Press PhotoWorld Press PhotoWorld Press Photo is an independent, non-profit organization based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Founded in 1955 the organization is known for holding the world's largest and most prestigious annual press photography contest....
, 1st Prize in category ‘Daily Life Stories’, 1st Prize in category - ‘General News Stories’
- 1994: Premier Photo of the Year, World Press PhotoWorld Press PhotoWorld Press Photo is an independent, non-profit organization based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Founded in 1955 the organization is known for holding the world's largest and most prestigious annual press photography contest....
- 1993: 1st Prize in category ‘Daily Life Stories’, World Press PhotoWorld Press PhotoWorld Press Photo is an independent, non-profit organization based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Founded in 1955 the organization is known for holding the world's largest and most prestigious annual press photography contest....
- 1991/93: Gold Medal, Western Canada Magazine Awards
- 1991: W. Eugene SmithW. Eugene SmithWilliam Eugene Smith was an American photojournalist known for his refusal to compromise professional standards and his brutally vivid World War II photographs.- Life and work :...
Foundation Award - 1991: Silver Medal, Canadian National Awards
Selected exhibitions
- 2008: George Eastman HouseGeorge Eastman HouseThe George Eastman House is the world's oldest museum dedicated to photography and one of the world's oldest film archives, opened to the public in 1949 in Rochester, New York, USA. World-renowned for its photograph and motion picture archives, the museum is also a leader in film preservation and...
, Rochester, New York - 2006: FOAM, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- 2005: No Man's Land - Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris, France
- 2001: National Portrait GalleryScottish National Portrait GalleryThe Scottish National Portrait Gallery is an art gallery on Queen Street, Edinburgh, Scotland. It holds the national collections of portraits, all of which are of, but not necessarily by, Scots. In addition it also holds the Scottish National Photography Collection...
, Edinburgh, UK - 2001: Canadian Museum of Contemporary PhotographyCanadian Museum of Contemporary PhotographyThe Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography is an gallery of Canada's best art and documentary photography. Founded in 1985 and affiliated to the National Gallery of Canada, it is housed at the National Gallery of Canada, located at 380 Sussex Drive, Ottawa.The roots of the collection reach...
, Ottawa, Canada - 1997: Noorderlicht Photo Festival, Groningen, Netherlands
- 1997: Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain
- 1994: Retrospective - Nieuwekerk, the Netherlands
- 1994: Carnets de Voyage - Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography
- 1991: Le Mois de la Photo - Maison de la Culture Plateau, Montreal, Canada