Don McCullin

Don McCullin grew up on a London council estate and at age five, was evacuated to Somerset. Seperated from his sister, who was placed with a much wealthier family, McCullin developed issues about class and poverty; his affinity to persecuted peoples developed later through being beaten at a later placement. McCullin left Art College to support his family aged fourteen, following the death of his father. Severely dyslexic and having not done well in school, McCullin was a self confessed tear-away until a gang acquaintance was involved in the murder of a police man. McCullin, having photographs of the gang was immediately in demand with the press; this was the beginning of a lifelong career in photography.

McCullin’s photography is described as exceptionally powerful and technically sound. He uses relatively simple equipment, never a flash and rarely has a need for cropping or manipulation; he is instinctively a great photographer. He always does his own printing and mainly in black and white with heightened contrast to enhance impact, to make those images really stay with the viewer as they do with him. 

McCullin worked intensively as a war photographer, to the detriment of his first marriage until the early eighties when issues over opposing ethos lead to his dismissal.

Turning to work such as advertising to pay for travel, McCullin explored parts of India and Africa, writing books such as ‘Don McCullin in Africa’. Whilst in England, McCullin spent time photographing homeless people for a story about derelicts, those pushed aside by society. Cold and with a sense of discomfort, McCullin describes the excitement of potentially encountering an amazing scene; as with his war photography, he was looking for the truth and often found it in the gaze of his subject looking directly at him. He once said that as he worked he ‘looked into people's eyes and they would look back and there would be something like a meeting of guilt’. It is this that gives depth and compassion to his images. 

McCullin believes that seeing, really seeing has nothing to do with photography; photography is just about showing the truth of that. The most important thing in his eyes is your emotional approach and the emotional commitment to where you are and what you are doing; to him, the technical side is secondary.

Often asked, ‘Do you hide behind the camera?’ McCullin considers this a ridiculous question; hiding behind the camera would be tantamount to hiding your own emotions. McCullin’s ethos is to be there, feel it, live it, look at what’s in front of you; I am inspired by McCullin’s work but I what truly inspires me is the ethos of committing emotionally  to a situation, in a bid to capture so much more than visual impact.