Peterborough has an exclusive chance to see, hear, and experience the vision of renowned Canadian photojournalist Larry Towell at “Blood In The Soil”, a special fundraising event presented by SPARK Photo Festival at the Market Hall on Monday, October 27.
Over the years, Larry has worked as the only Canadian freelance photographer with the prestigious Magnum Photos Agency in areas of conflict. His work has resulted in thirteen books, hundreds of journal publications, and exhibitions around the world.
Larry’s latest book Afghanistan has just been released by Aperture and is featured in the October 3rd issue of the New Yorker Magazine.
He has also been witness to the disenfranchisement of rural populations due to the liberalization of international trade barriers, including the Mennonite migrant workers of Mexico. His award-winning book The World From My Front Porch features scenes and stories of his own family and their connection to the land in rural Ontario.
His long-term projects have won many international awards, including World Press, POY, the Hasselblad, Albert Eisenstadt, the Henri Cartier-Bresson award, and the Prix Nadar, among others.
Larry’s business card reads “Human Being”. The son of a car repairman, he grew up in rural Ontario near where he lives today, studied visual arts at York University, and taught folk music and poetry before becoming a freelance photographer in the mid-eighties. For two years after graduating, he lived on a raft he built himself, writing and playing music.
In an interview with The Canadian Journalism Project, Larry Towell says “I never cared about photography, it’s people I care about.”
When I ask him to identify the driving force behind his three decades of work, he says “human rights issues”. He has said that photojournalism is about more than just documenting events as they unfold, “it’s about documenting people and what they are going through.”
After months at a time spent working in the field and then returning to his farm in Ontario, writing books is a way for Larry to process the weight of the images he captures, the experiences he bears witness to. Music and poetry are no doubt part of that processing, too. When it all comes together, the result is a human experience that is more than just a static image of an event in time.
“Blood In The Soil” is a show for anyone interested in photography, multimedia, and the art of live storytelling. With his photographs and video work projected behind him, Larry performs original songs and poems with field recordings, while playing the musical saw, guitar and shrudi box.
As a folk musician, Larry has always had an awareness of Peterborough as a place known for its music scene, but this will be his first visit.
This unique performance is a fundraiser for SPARK Photo Festival, which celebrates photography, and the artists, dreamers, innovators, storytellers, professionals and enthusiasts behind the camera lens. Each year, in the month of April, Peterborough and region will come alive with numerous photographic exhibits and artists, workshops, lectures and other related events and activities.
