Description

As well as photographing sites of conflict and human suffering around the world, Larry Towell has dedicated much time to documenting his own family. Here, his daughter Naomi, stands by the window inside of an abandoned farmhouse in Lambton County, Ontario in 1992.

If there's one theme that connects all my work, I think it's that of landlessness; how land makes people into who they are and what happens to them when they lose it and thus lose their identities

Larry Towell
© Larry Towell | Magnum Photos

Larry Towell's experience as a poet and a folk musician have done much to shape his personal style. The son of a car repairman, Towell grew up in a large family in rural Ontario, Canada. During studies in visual arts at Toronto’s York University, he was given a camera and taught how to process black and white film.

In 1984, he became a freelance photographer and writer focusing on the dispossessed, exile and peasant rebellion. Significant bodies of work include the Nicaraguan Contra war, the relatives of the disappeared in Guatemala, ten years of reportage in El Salvador, and an 11-year project on the Mennonite migrant workers of Mexico.

He became a Magnum nominee in 1988 and a full member in 1993.

© Larry Towell | Magnum Photos

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