"Close to Home" January 6 - February 4, 2012
Opening Reception & Book Signing of The World from My Front Porch (2008) with Larry Towell - Saturday, January 21 from 2-4pm
"Close to Home" features photographs from two different bodies of work, The World From My Front Porch and The Mennonites. At our Opening Reception, Towell will sign copies of his most recent publication, The World from My Front Porch. "Close to Home" is presented in collaboration with Stephen Bulger Gallery.
We will also be screening Larry Towell's personal video diary, Indecisive Moments, January 28, 2pm. Made in the Occupied Territories, Indecisive Moments bridges the gap between artist and journalist, bringing the viewer inside Towell's highly stylized world. Larry Towell will be present for a Q&A following the film. (40 mins)
Larry Towell,
(b. Chatham, Ontario, 1953), is Canada’s first photographer to be
associated with Magnum, the world’s most prestigious photo agency, which
was founded in by Henry Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa in 1947.
In 1976, after completing a Visual Arts degree at York University in Toronto, Towell volunteered in Calcutta where he began photographing and writing. In 1984, he became a freelance photographer and writer. He completed projects on the Nicaraguan Contra war, on the relatives of the disappeared in Guatemala, and on American Vietnam War veterans who had returned to Vietnam to rebuild the country.
In 1996, Towell completed a project based on ten years of reportage in El Salvador, followed by a major book on the Palestinians. His fascination with landlessness also led him to the Mennonite migrant workers of Mexico, an eleven-year project completed in 2000. After receiving the inaugural Henri Cartier-Bresson Award, Towell finished a second highly acclaimed book on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in 2005.
His most recent project, The World from My Front Porch is a collection of photographs of his family’s life in southern Ontario. In this personal album, Towell begins with a personal story of his family and farm and concludes with the story of his journeys beyond his front porch.
Towell’s photo
stories have been published in many international magazines including;
LIFE, The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Elle, Rolling Stone, Geo,
and Stern.
He has had numerous one person and group exhibitions
across Europe, the U.S., and Canada, and is in many public and private
collections internationally.
Towell has won many international photo awards including the Henri Cartier-Bresson Award (first recipient); the World Press Photo of the Year; The Hasselblad Award; The Alfred Eisenstadt Award; The Oskar Barnack Award; and the first Roloff Beny Book award for his 1997 monograph entitled El Salvador, amongst others. He is also a gifted writer and musician and is the author of three CDs as well as Indecisive Moments (2008), an award winning short film.
He currently sharecrops a 75-acre farm in rural Ontario where he lives with his wife and two of his four children.