Don McCullin

"Well, first of all, I'd been expelled from the area. I was watching Falange executing groups of men in tens and twenties, butchering them in front of me; stabbing them, kicking them in the face...and you know, building up...you know, often people when they murder people like that in a genocide fashion, they have to build up hatred, and by doing so, they have to work themselves up and they have to become bestial; and they kick people, and punch people, and degrade people, because they have to bring on the courage and the excuse, and reason to murder. And I was watching this in doorways, and I could see men being shot down in cold blood in front of me; brains going all over the wall; I almost broke down. I saw some men standing there, and the next thing I know, they were dropping, and one of them was just saying, Allah, with the last breath from his lungs. And I went around into a stairwell, and I thought I was going to break down. I thought, God, you know; this is not real! What's going on? And I'd been with the Falange because we weren't allowed to operate on the other side in what they called the green line in those days; that's in West Beirut, so I was in East Beirut. But what shocked me before I end my story, was the fact that I was with people who call themselves Christians; that's what really got me. And so they said, 'you leave this area and you take no pictures.' And I was with a very nice journalist from The Sunday Times, who's now a professor at a university in the north of England, and we were walking quite shakily away from this butchery, and I heard music. And I said to Martin, 'do you hear music?' And he said, 'yes,' he said, 'but let's just get out of here; let's get going.' And I said, I can hear music; it's getting louder. And I passed a crossroads, an intersection, and sure enough, I looked up and I saw this dead young Palestinian girl who could have been no more than sixteen to twenty years of age, lying in this horrible, cold, damp road, because it had rained heavily the night before. And lo and behold! There was a group of young Christians; one with a Thompson machine gun and another with a Kalashnikov. One of them had a lute. And I said to Martin, 'I've got to get this picture.' And he said, 'no, no, no; let's go; we don't want to make any problems.' And then, one of them, the man with the lute said, 'hey mister! Come and take a photo.' And I said to Martin, 'I'm going to do this.' And I went off, and I took two shots, didn't even use my exposure meter, I guessed it; and then we fled. And it's…in many respects, I think it's more akin to a religious painting."

Interview with Don McCullin, audio and text but no pictures

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Mike  (Thanks to Sean K.) Photo: Don McCullin in 1986 (photographer unknown). Getty Images.

Comments

[ben ng]

Thank you for posting this Mike! Don McCullin is one of the people I most admire. Now, that's a photographer- reminding us that we really need to have an emotional connection (whether with people or landscape or any other subject), and to think about making a statement in our work. It is sad to see that Wars continue; but good to know that there are still photographers who keep the tradition of bearing witness, inspired by McCullin's work. Some of their current work can be seen in www.lightstalkers.org., which I joined some time ago.

[Scott Kirkpatrick]

An awesome interview. I didn't know McCullin was so introspective and articulate about how war photography has affected him. I'm glad he found the dark shadows of the English countryside instead in his later years.

scott

[Victor]

A hero of our time, his photographs to use his own word - make you feel the moment - inspiring.

The photo of the four young men mentioned first in the interview - http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/artandthe60s/theguvnors.htm

Another one his his famous images, you feel her emotion
http://www.bbc.co.uk/polish/specials/1630_50_photography/page4.shtml

[Bas]

And read Don's memoirs, "Unreasonable Behaviour":

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0099437767 (Or enter Amazon through one of Mike's links and then search for it!)

Very good read indeed. Makes me never want to be a conflict photographer!

[Grant S.]

It was a scary moment for a young middle class child, raised primarily in the comfortable surroundings of Middle England, to see his work on the deprivations of the poverty inflicted on the northern poor of England.
Along with his war work, he remained one of my most admired photographers to this day, in that he dragged emotional contact out with every shot of war or domestic simplicity. I'm afraid I would not like to occupy his head for a moment - it must be very scary in there.

[Miserere]

A haunting read, Mike. Thanks for bringing Mr McCullin to my attention.

It saddens me that there are still war photographers. It means that, despite having all seen the horrors brought about by human conflict through their images, we still think war is an option. I suppose it says a lot about us humans.

[Paul Mc Cann]

That first picture he took that was consequently published in The Observer makes me despair.

Great photograpers are born not made.

[A.J.]

The lute player photograph is included here:

http://photo-muse.blogspot.com/2007/04/don-mccullin.html

[Sean]

"It was a scary moment for a young middle class child, raised primarily in the comfortable surroundings of Middle England, to see his work on the deprivations of the poverty inflicted on the northern poor of England."

I was born and raised in a tough working class area in northern England, so the shots of the families from Bradford are very familiar to me. I’m not a baby boomer, I'm 36. Poverty of that nature still exists in the UK and many don’t believe it, but then it was just the same back then.

It would be interesting to see if Don could track down some of the children that were in those shots. I’d like to see how their lives turned out

Cheers

Sean

[Simon E]

Thanks Mike.

Don is the photojournalist I most admire - for his compassion, and his burning desire to expose war, poverty etc as the truly awful things they are, as well as the photographs themselves.

He photographs exclusively in black & white and prints his own work. The last time I read him discuss equipment he used only 28mm and 135mm lenses with his 35mm SLRs.

Other interviews:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/feb/14/iraq.features11
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1543313,00.html
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article2631118.ece

Unfortunately the work he did with AIDS victims for Christian Aid in Africa is no longer available online.