#mccullin

We don’t live in a black and white world, but once you see a black and white photograph, it haunts you. I have done a few pictures of wars in colour, but they don’t work - they feel too cosy - while black and white photographs will penetrate your memory.

There is no doubt that my photographs have a very strong religious overtone, they are like twentieth century icons. When human beings are suffering, they tend to look up, as if hoping for salvation. And that’s when I press the button.

My work is a silent protest against the futility of war.

- Sir Don McCullin

Don McCullin’s 60 year photographic career started during his period of National Service in the RAF. He failed to pass the written theory paper necessary to become a photographer in the RAF. So, he spent his service in the darkroom. During this time, he bought his first camera, a Rolleicord, which he pawned upon returning to the UK due to a funds shortage. His mother used her own money to buy it back for him.

Since that time, he’s covered conflicts all over the world, including Vietnam, Biafra, Northern Ireland, Afghanistan, Iran and the Congo. In 2016, At 81 years old, he travelled to Iraq to photograph the Battle of Mosul and photograph people fleeing the city. His life has been an incredible journey from very humble beginnings. It was also in 2016 that the Queen granted him a knighthood.

As a veteran of a war in Afghanistan, I believe that McCullin's many iconic photographs do not actually depict the futility of war. Indeed they show something much worse: its unquantifiable wastefulness. They remind us, poignantly, that we are not dealing with statistics nor casualties, but actual human beings who suffer and a pay a price in blood, limb, and tears. 

You can't go around kidding yourself that your photographs in a few papers will change the world. They can't and they haven't. I despair about the human race. The press only shows the bums, the killers and the arms dealers and people like that. Good news never sold a newspaper.

Don McCullin spent decades photographing war and carnage across the globe – then he retrained his lens on the Somerset countryside. As he turns 90, a new book celebrates his gorgeous still lifes and landscapes Continue reading…