With a deep and intimate gaze, Larry Towell stands out in the world of photographic reportage. Through his powerful and moving images, Towell documents the often forgotten realities and significant events of everyday life. His ability to immerse himself in communities and capture the essence of humanity in the most complex situations makes him a leading figure in photographic journalism. With an authentic style and a passion for social justice, Towell continues to illuminate the world's often dark realities through his extraordinary work
People and Their Stories
Larry Towell was born in Chatham, Ontario, in 1953. He studied Visual Arts at York University in Toronto, after which he volunteered in Calcutta where he began photographing. It could’ve been a much different path as he didn’t really pay much attention to photography when he was younger. Studying visual arts, it certainly wasn’t his ambition to become a photographer. It sounds weird since photography was a part of visual studies, but it wasn’t photojournalism, it was art photography, which Towell never cared about. It’s always been about people and their stories.
In the beginning, he was more interested in poetry and writing than being a photograph. Poets and writers were funded by the government, photography wasn’t. There were no Canadian photographers, and the whole area was stagnant. Then he went to India and got interested in the questions of wealth distribution and the balance of power. In the 80’s he went to Central America, and that’s when and where he became quite serious about the photography. Suddenly, it was people’s lives at stake, and photography provided an excuse to simply be there and interact with the people, hearing and capturing their stories. He was inspired by those folks, standing up for themselves, against oppressors and dictators. At this time, he was more of a writer, carrying tape recorders with him interviewing people.
After returning home, he didn’t quite know what to do with his work. So he found about Magnum, and after one phone call sent them his pictures. Member gathered for an annual meeting and decided to invite Towell to join. It was a turning point in his career, but his parents, who were working class and never traveled anywhere, couldn’t grasp the significance of this invitation. They had eight children and were somewhat poor, living on a small farm. Fortunately enough, because of their low income, the artist got a lot of student assistance, of which half were grants, so he went to college.
He is also a musician, the sound was always very important to him, and he always collected it. His first project was recording people talking and taking their testimonies. Then he began carrying a video camera and tapes. The artist was working in multimedia before it was even recognized under that name. In these days, there are expectations that every still photographer must also be a multimedia.
"If there is a theme that unites all my work, I believe it is that of landlessness; how land makes people who they are and what happens to them when they lose it and therefore lose their identity"
Larry Towell
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