Larry Towell - Shati Refugee Camp, Gaza
Spending the majority of his life on the vast farmlands of Lambton County, Ontario, Canada,1 photographer Larry Towell lives by his motto, “land makes people who they are.”2 He considers land an integral part of identity.3 Through his photojournalism of global conflicts and crises, Towell poses the question, what happens to individuals’ identities when they lose their land? His moving photographic series capturing the everyday lives of Palestinian refugees reveals that the loss of land forces a loss of identity.4 Still, Towell faces the challenge of relating the refugees’ identity crisis to his viewers, many of whom never experienced displacement and thus fail to grasp the severity of the situation Towell shows. To reach his viewers, Larry Towell depicts the familiar. From the family photographs we all possess to the religious narratives we recognize, the photographer connects his viewers to the refugees and the effects of their displacement as illustrated in Shati Refugee Camp, Gaza.
Shati Refugee Camp, Gaza reflects Larry Towell’s deep fascination with land’s influence on identity. Throughout his life, Towell embarked on extensive photojournalistic projects studying conflict affected individuals; his subjects include people impacted by El Salvador’s Civil War and the Nicaraguan Contra wars to those of 9/11 and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.5 As a photojournalist, Larry Towell recognizes the barrier that exists between the conflict he portrays and viewers who are completely removed from the depicted events. He mitigates the issue by focusing on the familiar in his photographs. Towell captures displaced individuals attempting to continue their normal routines in spite of the conflict surrounding them. His photographs show a sort of disconnect between individuals carrying on with their lives and the nearby hostilities.6 “I don’t believe in illustrating events,” the photographer contends, “my pictures are about the small things that surround me in this world.”7 By noticing familiar habits, viewers start relating to the refugees. They begin associating their everyday routines and doings with those portrayed, placing themselves in the refugees’ position and ultimately reflecting on the repercussions of displacement. Considering himself a “humanist” photographer,8 Larry Towell reproduces the familiar in unfamiliar circumstances, connecting viewers to the events he captures.
Shati Refugee Camp, Gaza is a black and white, gelatin silver print taken by Larry Towell in 1993. It shows a woman strikingly displaying a picture in her right hand that obscures her face. The picture, skewed to imitate the woman’s slightly tilted head, depicts a young man squatting in front of a backdrop of curtains, a gun in his hand. Towell strongly believes that photographs should convey not only the events within the frame, but also the ones beyond it.9 With that, we try to decipher the woman and young man’s story conveyed in Towell’s work. The picture memorializes the young man as his presence remains in it and not alongside the woman. Functioning as an object of remembrance, it implies the young man’s passing. The violence signaled by the gun and its outward facing position suggests that the young man’s death resulted from conflict. The picture’s position in front of the woman, serving as a replacement for her face, reveals a special relationship between the woman and the young man. He is part of her identity as he shares her face, implying a familial, even maternal, connection. Elements of Shati Refugee Camp, Gaza expose the subject’s story as Larry Towell creates a portrait of a woman who has lost her son due to the conflict surrounding her.
The picture held up by the woman in Shati Refugee Camp, Gaza reveals significant elements about the photograph and becomes a conduit for connecting Larry Towell’s viewers to the refugee woman portrayed. The photographer relies on the familiarity of the object to relate the woman’s story. Like her, we also possess mementos and pictures of family members. By relating our own family photographs to the woman’s, we start to place ourselves in the woman’s position and contemplate losing those family members pictured in our photographs. We begin to empathize with her situation, associating with the woman’s feeling of loss. Larry Towell utilizes the familiarity of family photographs because he hopes to create a connection, “I try to become the people I photograph,” Towell states, “If you can take a photo through the eyes of your subject, you might transfer some clarity and empathy to the viewer.”10 Through the picture of the young man held up by the woman, Larry Towell employs the familiarity of the family photograph to connect viewers to the loss experienced by the subject in Shati Refugee Camp, Gaza.
In addition to the familiarity of the photograph, Larry Towell employs the recognized, religious narrative of the Virgin Mary in relating the subject of Shati Refugee Camp, Gaza to his viewers. As the title suggests, the location of the photograph is one of Gaza’s eight refugee camps called Shati, due to its position along the coastline near Gaza city.11 Resulting from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Gaza’s occupation forced the displacement of many into refugee camps.12 To explore the war-torn territory, Larry Towell followed Dr. Eyad el-Sarrai as he visited and treated families in the refugee camps.13 Towell’s exposure to conflict affected refugees, their stories, and the impact of displacement on their identities inspired him to photograph the refugees. The conflict’s location is profoundly saturated with religious context, as Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine, plays a meaningful role in Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. The intertwinement of these faiths reflects itself in the photograph, further shedding light upon the plausible relationship between the figures in Shati Refugee Camp, Gaza. The triangular shape formed by the woman’s body and her hijab reminds viewers of common depictions of the Virgin Mary. The parallel between the well-known narrative of Mary losing her son and the woman in Towell’s photograph implies she has similarly lost her son. The comparable narrative is further exemplified by the halo-like lighting encircling the woman’s head, suggesting her connection to the holy figure. Larry Towell employs the well-known narrative of the Virgin Mary in order to connect viewers to the meaning of Shati Refugee Camp, Gaza, demonstrating a mother’s loss of her child.
By connecting the refugee woman to his viewers through familiar objects and concepts, Larry Towell conveys the loss of identity resulting from losing one’s land in Shati Refugee Camp, Gaza. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict roots itself in a dispute over land, demonstrating the significance of land to the individual. If land is taken away, individuals turn to violence to gain their land and their identity back.14 In Shati Refugee Camp, Gaza the woman obscures her face with a picture of her son, effectively disappearing herself on account of her son’s passing. By positioning the image exactly over her face, the woman projects her son’s identity onto her own, implying that his passing, caused by displacement, will have lifelong effects on her. The subject of Towell’s photograph Shati Refugee Camp, Gaza lost a part of her identity as a result of losing her son, a repercussions of displacement.
Larry Towell’s photographs, including the image of the mother and her lost son of Shati Refugee Camp, Gaza, cause many to argue that the photographer shows a subjective view of conflict.15 However, rather than conveying a sided position, Larry Towell chooses victims of conflict as his subjects to inspire the need for peace.16 As a photojournalist capturing the gritty realism and first-hand experience of war, Larry Towell truly believes that through his photography he can address and shed light upon the repercussions of political and social disputes.17 Rather than perceiving the work as defending a side, we must view it as depicting the familiar feeling of loss, and the humanity that it represents. The mother’s loss of her child, a young man’s loss of his life, a refugee’s loss of land, and in sum, the individual’s loss of identity.
We do not know the woman in Larry Towell’s Shati Refugee Camp, Gaza; the picture she holds conceals her face, eliminating any traces of her identity. From the title, we merely recognize her as a refugee, deprived of her land. The figure conveys the relentless hostilities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the displacement of countless people into Gaza’s refugee camps. She articulates the inconceivable ramifications of violence by showing its effects on her identity through the manner in which she displays a picture of her son. However, her image conveys not only the loss of the refugees’, but the familiar feeling of loss recognized by all of humanity as well. For the Palestinian refugees, the loss of land strips away a part of their identity; the loss of family members and children strips away another part. Remaining is Larry Towell’s photograph Shati Refugee Camp, Gaza, a portrait without identity.
Daria Modrzanska
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1Julia De Laurentiis Johnson, “Stepping Into the Beyond,” Maclean’s 127, no. 41 (October 20, 2014), http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/1609185074?accountid=465.
2Larry Towell, The World from My Front Porch (London: Chris Boot, 2008).
3Kristina Feliciano, "Larry Towell's Family Album," Photo District News 18 (1998): 68-72, http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/202868185?accountid=465.
4Ibid., Larry Towell, The World from My Front Porch.
5Ibid., Julia De Laurentiis Johnson, “Stepping Into the Beyond,” Maclean’s 127, no. 41.
6Vivian Tors, "Documents of Disconnection," Canadian Medical Association Journal 165 (2001): 69, http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/205005668?accountid=465.
7Ibid., Kristina Feliciano, "Larry Towell's Family Album," Photo District News 18.
8Ibid.
9Ibid., Julia De Laurentiis Johnson, “Stepping Into the Beyond,” Maclean’s 127, no. 41.
10Ibid.
11Karin Laub and Tia Goldenberg, "UN Calls for Gaza Cease-Fire," Spartanburg Herald-Journal (2014), http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/1549403600?accountid=465.
12Larry Towell, Mahmoud Darwish, and René Backmann, Then Palestine (New York City, New York: Aperture, 1998).
13Ibid., Larry Towell, Mahmoud Darwish, and René Backmann, Then Palestine.
14Ibid.
15David J. Russin, Deckel Zeev, and Marguerite Shore, “Letters,” Aperture no. 173 (2003): 8-9.
16Bruno Chalifour, "The Wall of Palestine," Afterimage 33, no. 1 (2005): 44-45, http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/entertainment-reviews/17883968/wall-palestine.
17Ibid., Larry Towell, The World from My Front Porch.