Larry Towell - Then Palestine - 1998

Magnum photographer Larry Towell made seven trips to Palestine between 1993 and 1997 and documented the Arab/Israeli conflict in a powerful series of pictures. Immediate and full of raw feeling, his images bring the viewer into the active center of a bitter struggle. The photographs reveal the tragedy of a society subsumed in violence: a fist clenched around a rock thrusts through the frame, a soldier jerks a small child off the ground by the wrist, a mother covers her face with a photograph of her gun-wielding dead son.

"Open-fire regulations sanction shoot-to-kill. We run through the alleys. We hear them behind us. The footsteps are catching up. We hear the weight of guns, boots, and the grunting that stops dead as we turn the corner and take chairs in the assembly of mourners.... A sniper, fifteen meters to my left, crouches into position with a high-powered rifle fixed on me, playing a nerve-wracking game. Others [point] at the motionless old men who continue to ignore them, grieving the death of their boys. Their fighters. Eventually the soldiers tire of the amusement and leave..." from Larry Towell's journals

The consumate Magnum photographer, Towell's photographs reach beyond the story, adding telling and mysterious details that epitomize photography's unique ability to reveal multiple layers of meaning simultaneously. In an exemplary image, two women sharing coffee exchange glances, while their shadows act out an entirely different scenario: one offers a flower to the other while the two are photographed.

This is a gripping eyewitness account of the Palestinian plight. At the height of the Palestinian intifada in 1993, Magnum photographer Larry Towell trained his lens on Israel's displaced Arab populations living under occupation in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem as well as documenting Arab-Israeli relations there over a period of five years. Then Palestine includes verse by the exiled Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. French journalist Rene Backmann contributes a historical essay about an Israeli woman's poignant, strained relations with the former owners of her childhood home - Palestinians from whom the house was seized in 1948. Towell's Afterword includes excerpts from the journals he kept during his seven trips to the occupied territories between 1993 and 1997.

A powerful example of documentary photography, this book is as relevant today as it was when it was published in 1998.

Condition:
Very good first edition of the very rare French edition published by Marval at the same time as the English language Aperture edition. Binding tight. Small crease to lower front corner. Minor edgewear to other corners. Spine creased. Age yellowing to edges of pages. Please examine listing photos carefully.