“Big Brother is watching us all,” Larry Towell, a leading Canadian photographer, writes after Canada’s government offered to pay his way to a Bangladesh photo festival so long as he doesn’t talk about Gaza. No dice, Towell said.
Towell is one of the great creative spirits of our age. A Canadian oral historian, poet, sharecropper, and photographer in his early 60s, he published a book on Palestine focusing on the refugee population 20 years ago. Just look at the awareness and dignity in this picture. His business card says “Human Being.” He writes, “If there’s one theme that connects all my work, I think it’s that of land-lessness; how land makes people into who they are and what happens to them when they lose it and thus lose their identities.” Well he posted this info on his Facebook page yesterday.
wow. we’ll pay your fare, but you can only talk about what we tell you to talk about… worse than fascism? hoping to pimp out your artists?
Can he only talk about Kiev (where the Canadian Govt. is heavily involved)? What about Israel (where the Canadian Govt. is heavily involved)?
Towell stood true to his obvious ethics. I hope the organizers find other sources of funding for his trip.