Larry Towell | Dwellings

Exhibition Dates: October 7 – November 6, 2010

The gallery is pleased to present its sixth exhibition of work by Larry Towell. As a student of Fine Arts at York University, he was schooled in the basics of photography, learning to use a camera and process black-and-white film. Along with poetry, prose and music, Towell began to utilize photography as a tool to explore the inherent inequalities of society, a pursuit that he continues to this day.

Dwellings isolates a selection of photographs Towell has made while working on a number of separate projects that are all investigations of land and belonging. Believing that land makes people who they are, and that the loss of land is synonymous with a loss of identity, Towell has engaged with families living in dire conditions in such places as Beirut, the Gaza Strip, South Africa and Afghanistan. This exhibition looks at traces of the human condition as evidenced by remnants of the inhabitants’ existence.  

Larry Towell is the first Canadian born member of the prestigious Magnum Photos Agency, whose photographers bridge the divide between journalism and art, and between the objective statement and the personal point of view. Towell’s work is exhibited and collected around the world. He 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; and The Prix Nadar. He is the author of 11 books, including: The World from My Front Porch (Archive of Modern Conflict / Bulger Gallery Press, 2008); The Cardboard House (Trolley, 2008); No Man’s Land (Chris Boot, 2005); The Mennonite’s (Phaidon, 2000); Then Palestine (Aperture, 1998) and El Salvador (W. W. Norton & Company, 1997).