Magnum Photographer Larry Towell: A Lifetime of Documenting Conflict, Humanity, Memory
Renowned documentary photographer Larry Towell, born in rural Ontario in 1953, has built a remarkable career spanning more than four decades, chronicling some of the world’s most complex conflicts while weaving personal reflection into his visual storytelling.
READ ALSO: Tinubu’s Slip in Turkey: From Stumble to Symbol of Democratic Strength
Towell studied visual arts at York University in Toronto between 1972 and 1976 before volunteering in Calcutta. Shortly afterward, he retreated into solitude, living on a homemade raft for two years as he focused on writing — an early sign of the introspective approach that would later define his work.
During the 1980s, Towell balanced teaching folk music at night school with documenting the Nicaraguan Contra war and families of the disappeared in Guatemala. These experiences produced two oral histories and a book of poetry. He joined the prestigious Magnum Photos agency in 1988, embarking on a full-time freelance career.
In 1996, Towell completed a decade-long reportage on El Salvador’s civil war, followed by two acclaimed books on Palestine. His 2008 publication The World from My Front Porch explored family, land, and displacement, while a subsequent 10-year project focused on Mennonite migrant workers in Mexico and Canada. The Mennonites, first released in 2000 by Phaidon and reissued by GOST in 2022, earned widespread international recognition.
His deeply personal book Afghanistan, published by Aperture in 2014, offered an intimate portrait of a nation shaped by decades of conflict. In 2023, Towell released The History War, documenting the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
Towell’s photography and writing have appeared in major global publications including The New York Times Magazine, Life, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Geo, Stern and The New Yorker. His body of work includes 16 books, alongside music projects and documentary films.
His achievements have been recognized with numerous honors, including World Press Photo of the Year, the Leica Oskar Barnack Award, the inaugural Henri Cartier-Bresson Award, the W. Eugene Smith Award and the Prix Nadar. In 2020, he was named a Guggenheim Fellow.
Beyond photography, Towell is also an accomplished musician and songwriter. In 2023, he released The Man I Left Behind, a three-vinyl LP collection of original ballads inspired by his photographic journeys, accompanied by a feature-length documentary of the same title.
Towell’s work has been exhibited internationally and is held in major collections such as the Getty Center, National Gallery of Canada, George Eastman Museum, National Museum of Qatar, and the Archive of Modern Conflict in the United Kingdom.
Through decades of conflict reporting and deeply personal projects, Larry Towell continues to stand as a powerful voice in documentary photography, blending art, history, and human experience into a lasting global legacy.
Magnum Photographer Larry Towell: A Lifetime of Documenting Conflict, Humanity, Memory