Larry Towell
Larry Towell (* 1953 in Chatham-Kent , Ontario ) is a Canadian photographer, folk musician, storyteller and member of the Magnum photo agency .
First years
Larry Towell, the son of a car mechanic, comes from a family with Mexican roots. He grew up in rural Ontario and first attended regional schools. He then studied fine arts at York University in Toronto . His studies sparked his interest in photography and he got his first camera. In 1976, Towell went to Calcutta , India as a volunteer and began taking photos on the side. The obvious differences between rich and poor, especially the situation of the destitute rural population without land, the landless , preoccupied him.
After returning to Canada, he first taught folk music and poetry in order to earn a living. In 1984 he decided to work entirely as a freelance photographer.
Working as a photographer
His first photos were of counterrevolutionaries in Nicaragua , the civil war in El Salvador , the protests of the disappeared in Guatemala, and American Vietnam veterans working to rebuild Vietnam . His first photo report highlighted the ecological damage caused by the leak of the oil multinational Exxon Valdez .
After the magazines The New York Times , Life , and Rolling Stone had published photo reports by Larry Towell, he was accepted into the Magnum photo agency in 1988 as the first Canadian member. He had documented the conflict between Israel and Palestine and photographed Mennonite immigrants at their workplaces in Mexico . One of his very personal pieces of work showed life on his family's farm in southern Ontario. His reports on the armed conflict in Afghanistan also attracted attention .
He always uses traditional negative film and does not believe in digital possibilities: black and white is still the poetic form of photography , he is quoted as saying, digital is good for a quick shot. Black and white, on the other hand, requires a commitment of time and love on the part of the photographer. Towell likes to use a panorama camera for an impressive representation of the state of individual people in a destroyed landscape .
Overall, his work includes photo books, poems and the oral tradition of traditional storytellers. He recorded stories and songs of his encounters in different countries on audio CDs. Towell lives on a farm in Lambton County Ontario with his wife Ann and their four children .
Awards (selection)
- 2007: Achievement In Filmmaking Award, New York Independent Film And Video Festival
- 2005: Prix Nadar for No Man's Land
- 2003: Prix Henri Cartier-Bresson
- 2000: Society for News Design Award, La Nacion
- 1999: Hasselblad Foundation Award
- 1998: 1st prize Alfred Eisenstaedt Award
- 1998: Pictoral Prize, Pictures of the Year Foundation, University of Missouri
- 1998: Overseas Press Club, 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: Oskar Barnack Award
- 1996: El Mundo Award
- 1995: Ernst Haas Foundation Award
- 1994/95: Gold medal, Canadian National Awards
- 1994: Photo of the Year, Canon Photo Essay Award
- 1994: World Press Photo, first prize in the Daily Life Stories category and first prize in the General News Stories category
- 1994: Best Photo of the Year, World Press Photo
- 1993: First prize in the category: Daily Life Stories , Press Photo of the Year
- 1991/93: Gold Medal, Western Canada Magazine Awards
- 1991: W. Eugene Smith Foundation Award
- 1991: Silver Medal, Canadian National Awards
Exhibitions (selection)
- 2012: Royal Ontario Museum , Toronto, Canada
- 2006: FOAM, Amsterdam
- 2005: No Man's Land - Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris, France
- 2001: National Portrait Gallery , Edinburgh, UK
- 2001: Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography , Ottawa , Canada
- 1997: Noorderlicht Photo Festival, Groningen , Netherlands
- 1997: Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid , Spain
- 1994: Carnets de Voyage - Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography
- 1991: Le Mois de la Photo - Maison de la Culture Plateau, Montreal , Canada
Fonts
- Ruins: Afghanistan (2009)
- The Cardboard House. MSF Peru - Action on Aids | Trolley Books 2008. ISBN 978-1-904563-71-6
- The World From My Front Porch (2008)
- In the Wake of Katrina (2006)
- No Man's Land (2005) ISBN 978-2-84597-144-8
- The Mennonites (2000)
- Then Palestine (1999)
- El Salvador (1997)
- House on Ninth Street (1994)
- The Prison Poems of Ho Chi Minh (1992)
- Somosa's Last Stand (1990)
- Gifts of War (1988)
- Burning Cadillacs (1983)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Towell biography at Magnum [1]
- ^ Towell portrait of the Bulger Gallery [2]
- ↑ Larry Towell and Donovan Wylie: Afghanistan Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Towell, Larry |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Canadian photographer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1953 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Chatham-Kent , Ontario |