The World From My Front Porch

This is Larry Towell’s personal album. The central section of the book is his photo-essay about the Arcadian family life of the farm – the centre of his world – that he sharecrops in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada, photographed over a period of 20 years. Before and after this central section, the book features Towell’s meditations on land, home and belonging; firstly, the personal story of Towell’s family and farm, illustrated with archive photographs and historical artefacts including arrowheads found in his fields, the notebooks of the pioneer surveyor who built his front porch, and his father’s songbooks. In the last section, he relates the story of journeys beyond his front porch, as photographer, poet and storyteller, into the lives and struggles of people dispossessed by conflict. This section is illustrated with song lyrics, testimonies, press clippings and artefacts collected from war zones.