- Title: FRANCE: PARIS EXHIBITION OF LARRY TOWELLS PHOTOGRAPHS OF PALESTINIANS
- Date: 1st August 2005
- Summary: (MER1) PARIS, FRANCE (RECENT) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE/ PAN OF PHOTOGRAPHS OF CANADIAN PHOTOGRAPHER LARRY TOWELL'S COLLECTION FROM GAZA AND WEST BANK AT THE CARTIER-BRESSON FOUNDATION 0.07 2. CLOSE OF PHOTOGRAPH/ SIGN ON PHOTOGRAPH READING: "NO MAN'S LAND. LARRY TOWELL" 0.12 3. CLOSE OF PHOTOGRAPH SHOWING DESTROYED BUILDING IN PALESTINIAN REFUGEE CAMP 0.16 4. WIDE OF BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPH OF DESTROYED REFUGEE CAMP BUILDING 0.21 5. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (French) PAULINE VARMARE, PRESS OFFICER FOR THE EXHIBITION, SAYING: "It is quite a hard collection, where there is much hatred but also a lot of hope. Each one can see what he wants to see in it: the light in the pictures, the locations, the people that (Larry) Towell chooses as his subjects...There are peace activists, Israelis who demonstrate against the wall, there are all the religions, people praying in churches, there is an Armenian Easter parade. I think he really tried to show the diversity, the difficulties that coexistence poses, but he searched for hope; each time he went there he did it with the hope that things would get better; after the Oslo Accords he thought peace would soon arrive." 1.02 6. VARIOUS OF STILL PHOTOGRAPHS OF PALESTINIANS IN GAZA, THE WEST BANK AND EAST JERUSALEM 1.30 7. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (French) PAULINE VARMARE, PRESS OFFICER FOR THE EXHIBITION, SAYING: "Larry Towell is a farmer, from Toronto, Canada. He lives in his farm and the land issue has always been fundamental for him. He has worked with the Mennonites in Mexico, with local communities from South and Central America. The first time he went to the Middle East he was interested in the Palestinians deprived of their land, and that is the central issue of this collection." 1.57 8. SLV WOMAN TOURING EXHIBITION 2.03 9. STILL PHOTOGRAPH SHOWING MASKED PALESTINIAN CARRYING COFFIN IN FUNERAL 2.15 10. CLOSEUP OF PHOTOGRAPH SHOWING A BOY HOLDING A STONE 2.19 11. VARIOUS OF PHOTOGRAPHS SHOWING PALESTINIAN YOUTH HOLDING STONES 2.29 12. PAN OF PHOTOGRAPH OF MASKED PALESTINIAN TO PHOTOGRAPH OF WOMAN HOLDING CANDLE IN CHURCH 2.39 13. WIDE OF PHOTOGRAPH OF ISRAELIS MARCHING IN OLD CITY 2.44 14. VARIOUS OF PHOTOGRAPH OF INTERNATIONAL ACTIVISTS MARCHING IN DEMONSTRATION AND CARRYING PALESTINIAN FLAG 2.58 15. VARIOUS OF BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS OF PALESTINIANS IN REFUGEE CAMPS 3.13 16. VARIOUS OF CLAIRE CORGNIOU, STUDENT IN PARIS, LOOKING AT EXHIBITION 3.21 17. (SOUNDBITE) (French) CLAIRE CORGNIOU, STUDENT IN PARIS, SAYING: "The first thing that caught my attention was the aesthetic quality of the pictures. I was really impressed by that, and it was only afterwards that I really started noticing the walls riddled by bullets, the corpses, from one picture to the next. I think that makes it even stronger, the fact that at first we are touched by the beauty of the work, and then we start feeling revolted and simply cannot remain insensitive to what we see." 3.48 18. VARIOUS OF PHOTOGRAPHS OF PALESTINIANS IN GAZA, THE WEST BANK AND EAST JERUSALEM 3.58 19. CLOSE OF PHOTOGRAPH SHOWING PALESTINIAN FAMILY REMOVING BELONGINGS FROM DESTROYED HOUSE IN THE WEST BANK REFUGEE CAMP OF JENIN 4.05 20. WIDE OF MAN LOOKING AT EXHIBITION 4.10 21. STILL PHOTOGRAPH SHOWING A MAN PLACING CORPSE IN THE GROUND 4.17 22. WIDE OF PHOTOGRAPH SHOWING THE DESTRUCTION CAUSED DURING AN ARMY OFFENSIVE IN THE WEST BANK CITY OF JENIN 4.20 23. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (French) CLAIRE CORGNIOU, STUDENT IN PARIS, SAYING: "The picture that struck me the most was the wall being built, where only a little bit remains open and through it we see the light coming through, and that light signals the fact that soon the opening will be closed. For me, that light was also a thread of hope although one knows that the opening will be definitely closed and that no more light will come through." 4.44 24. STILL PHOTOGRAPH SHOWING THE BARRIER BEING BUILT, WITH ONLY A SMALL SECTION STILL OPEN 4.49 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 16th August 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: PARIS, FRANCE
- Country: France
- Reuters ID: LVAE9KSDHZPI7PFEOIT05FB067O4
- Story Text: Photographer Larry Towell's sobering collection of
black and white photographs entitled "The Walls of No Man's
Land: Palestine" is exhibited in Paris.
An exhibition of photographs by Canadian
photographer Larry Towell entitled "The Walls of No Man's
Land: Palestine" is being held at the art nouveau building
housing the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation in Paris.
Many of the visitors to the exhibition say the
black-and-white images taken in the West Bank, Gaza and
East Jerusalem, over a period of 11 years, are powerful and
often overwhelming.
"It is quite a hard collection, where there is much
hatred but also a lot of hope. Each one can see what he
wants to see in it: the light in the pictures, the
locations, the people that (Larry) Towell chooses as his
subjects...There are peace activists, Israelis who
demonstrate against the wall, there are all the religions,
people praying in churches, there is an Armenian Easter
parade. I think he really tried to show the diversity, the
difficulties that coexistence poses, but he searched for
hope; each time he went there he did it with the hope that
things would get better; after the Oslo Accords he thought
peace would soon arrive," said Pauline Vermare, press
officer in charge of communication for the exhibition.
Towell has been documenting Palestinians in photographs
since the end of the first Intifada in 1993. While much of
his previous work focused in-depth on subjects such as
landlessness, families and farming, the Magnum agency
photographer also spent many years in Central America where
conflict was rife.
It was in the early 1990s, after seeing a home video on
Canadian television made by an Israeli soldier who was
questioning the role of the army as an occupier, that he
started spending time around Palestinian refugee camps.
"Larry Towell is a farmer, from Toronto, Canada. He
lives in his farm and the land issue has always been
fundamental for him. He has worked with the Mennonites in
Mexico, with local communities from South and Central
America. The first time he went to the Middle East he was
interested in the Palestinians deprived of their land, and
that is the central issue of this collection," Vermare said.
Towell returned to the area over the next decade, each
time staying for about a month. In 2003, Towell was awarded
the inaugural Henri Cartier-Bresson photography prize,
which allowed him to complete his project on the
Palestinians and the construction of Israel's barrier.
Towell's pictures, some taken with a panoramic camera,
others with a wide angle lens, capture moments in
Palestinians' lives: the refugee camps, Israeli raids,
rubble, distress and hopelessness at a morgue in the early
morning, clashes, Israeli peace activists, the barrier.
Towell, who is also a poet and a folk musician, made
soundtracks to accompany his photographs, which plunge the
visitor even more deeply into another world.
Guided by the desire to be part of a process of change,
Towell's photographic journey through Palestinian lives
follows the political events beginning in 1993.
When the Oslo treaty was signed, Towell went back to
the West Bank to document what he thought would be the
creation of a new country and the end of a historical
conflict. Months later, he found himself documenting
settlements, raids, suicide bombings and the construction
of the barrier which Israel says is there to prevent
militant attacks, and Palestinians say is land grab of
territories they want for a future state.
"The first thing that caught my attention was the aesthetic
qualit
y of the pictures. I was really impressed
by that, and it was only afterwards that I really started
noticing the walls riddled by bullets, the corpses, from
one picture to the next. I think that makes it even
stronger, the fact that at first we are touched by the
beauty of the work, and then we start feeling revolted and
simply cannot remain insensitive to what we see," said
Claire Corgniou, a Parisian student who visited the
exhibition.
"The picture that struck me the most was the wall being
built, where only a little bit remains open and through it
we see the light coming through, and that light signals the
fact that soon the opening will be closed," added Corgniou.
"For me, that light was also a thread of hope although
one knows that the opening will be definitely closed and
that no more light will come through."
nb/jg
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