Larry Towell

Larry Towell (born 1953) 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. [cite web | title = Larry Towell biography | publisher =Magnum Photos | url = http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP=XSpecific_MAG.Biography_VPage&AID=2K7O3R1VY41C | accessdate = 2006-12-28 ] Returning to Canada, Towell taught folk music until becoming a freelance photographer and writer in 1984. His early work included projects on the Contra war in Nicaraguan, 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 and he has had picture essays published in The New York Times, Life, Rolling Stone, and other magazines. 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 Ontario and sharecrops a small farm with his wife and children.

Selected awards

*2005: Prix Nadar for his photobook, "No Man's Land"
*2003: Henri Cartier-Bresson Award
*1999: Hasselblad Foundation Award

Selected exhibitions

* 2008: George Eastman House, Rochester, New York [cite web | title = Larry Towell: The World From My Front Porch at Eastman House Feb. 16 through June 15 | publisher =George Eastman House | url = http://www.eastmanhouse.org/inc/press_room/08-02-12-3.php | accessdate = 2008-04-27 ]
* 2006: FOAM, Amsterdam, Netherlands
* 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: 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

Bibliography

* "In the Wake of Katrina" (2006)
* "No Man's Land" (2005)
* "The Mennonites" (2000)
* "Then Palestine" (1999)
* "El Salvador" (1997)
* "House on Ninth Street" (1994)
* "The Prison Poems of Ho Chi Minh" (1992)
* "Somoza's Last Stand" (1990)
* "Gifts of War" (1988)
* "Burning Cadillacs" (1983)

References

External links

* [http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP=XSpecific_MAG.PhotographerDetail_VPage&l1=0&pid=2K7O3R1VY0EV&nm=Larry%20Towell Towell’s page at Magnum Photos]