“In 1989 I discovered them in my own garden, hungry for soil and
poor in land. They came to look for work in the vegetable fields
and orchards in the counties of Lambton, Essex, Kent and Haldimand-Norfolk. I
I liked them very much because they seemed from another world and therefore completely
vulnerable in a society to which they did not belong and for which
they were not prepared. Because I loved them, they loved me, and even if
photography was forbidden, they let me photograph them. That's all
what there was to do. The Mennonites, originally from 16th century Holland
century, are nonconformists and have traditionally separated themselves from the world
living in colonies away from mainstream society. This project is
focuses on the Old Colony sect, the most conservative and most
island, engaged in a permanent battle against modernism which seeks
to change and absorb them. Rather than compromising their way of life,
Mennonites have been continually forced to migrate across the world to
retain their freedom to live as they wish. Larry Towell has
photographed the Mennonites of the old colony in the rural areas of
Ontario and Mexico between 1990 and 1999. Black and white photographs
which resulted, accompanied by a detailed text taken from journal notes and
from the "mud of memory," formed Towell's seminal book, The
Mennonites, first published in 2000. This second revised edition
and update revisits the project and includes 40 previously unpublished photographs.
