Sir Donald McCullinCBE (born 9 October 1935) is a British photojournalist, particularly recognised for his war photography and images of urban strife. His career, which began in 1959, has specialised in examining the underside of society, and his photographs have depicted the unemployed, downtrodden and impoverished.
During his National Service, McCullin was posted to the Suez Canal during the 1956 Suez Crisis, and served as a photographer's assistant. He failed the written theory paper to become a photographer in the RAF and spent his service in the darkroom.[6][5] During this period McCullin bought his first camera, a Rolleicord, for £30 when stationed in Nairobi.[7] On return to Britain, shortage of funds led to his pawning the camera and his mother used her money to redeem the pledge.[8]
In 1958 he took a photograph of a local London gang posing in a bombed-out building. He was persuaded by his colleagues to take his photograph of The Guvnors, as the gang was known, to The Observer, which published it, setting him on his path as a photographer.[7][9] Between 1966 and 1984, he worked as an overseas correspondent for the Sunday Times Magazine, recording ecological and man-made catastrophes such as wars, amongst them Biafra in 1968, and victims of the African AIDS epidemic.[5] His hard-hitting coverage of the Vietnam War and the Northern Ireland conflict is held in particularly high regard.
He also took the photographs of Maryon Park in London used in Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 film Blowup,[10] In 1968 his Nikon F2 camera stopped a bullet intended for him.[11] Also in 1968, on 28 July, he was invited to photograph the Beatles, then at the height of their fame and in the midst of recording The White Album. These sessions, made at several London locations, have become known as The Mad Day Out. They contain many well-known images of the band, including the gatefold sleeve picture from the Red and Blue compilations where the Beatles mingled with the crowd seen through railings. The photographs from this day were published in the 2010 book A Day in the Life of the Beatles.
A documentary about McCullin entitled Just One More War, directed by Jana Boková, with ATV as the production company, aired on the ITV network in 1977.[12]
In 1982 the British government refused to grant McCullin a press pass to cover the Falklands War, claiming the boat was full.[13][14][15][16][17] At the time he believed it was because the Thatcher government felt his images might be too disturbing politically.
He is the author of a number of books, including The Palestinians (with Jonathan Dimbleby, 1980), Beirut: A City in Crisis (1983) and Don McCullin in Africa (2005). His book, Shaped by War (2010) was published to accompany a retrospective exhibition at the Imperial War Museum North, Salford, England in 2010 and then at the Victoria Art Gallery, Bath and the Imperial War Museum, London. His most recent publication is Southern Frontiers: A Journey Across the Roman Empire, a poetic and contemplative study of selected Roman and pre-Roman ruins in North Africa and the Middle East.
In 2012, a documentary film of his life, McCullin, directed by David Morris and Jacqui Morris, was released. It was nominated for two BAFTA awards.[18] In later years, McCullin has turned to landscape, still-life works and commissioned portraits. In November 2015 McCullin was named Photo London Master of Photography for 2016.[19]
Filmed in February 2018 and broadcast in May, the BBC Four documentary The Road To Palmyra[20] saw McCullin visit Syria with historian Dan Cruickshank to see the devastation left by the conflict on the UNESCO listed site of Palmyra. Discussing his trip with the Radio Times he spoke of his approach to entering war zones: "I have risked my life endless times, and ended up in hospital with all kinds of burns and shell wounds. I have those reptile eyes that see behind and in front of me. I'm constantly trying to stay alive. I'm aware of warfare, of hidden mines."
Despite his reputation as a war photographer, McCullin has said that Alfred Stieglitz was a key influence on his work.[7]
Personal lifeedit
Living in Somerset, he is married and has five children from his marriages.[5]
Biopicedit
In November 2020, it was announced Angelina Jolie would be directing a biopic about McCullin, with Tom Hardy in the starring role. It is being adapted from McCullin's biography Unreasonable Behaviour by Gregory Burke.[21]
Publicationsedit
The Destruction Business. Open Gate Books. 1971. ISBN 0-333-13022-7.
2003: Royal Photographic Society's Special 150th Anniversary Medal and Honorary Fellowship (HonFRPS) in recognition of a sustained, significant contribution to the art of photography.[29]
2020-2021: Retrospective, Tate Liverpool (Exhibition extended to September 2021 as a result of COVID-19 related closures earlier in the year), Liverpool, UK[45]
Collectionsedit
McCullin's work is held in the following permanent collection:
"I grew up in total ignorance, poverty and bigotry, and this has been a burden for me throughout my life. There is still some poison that won't go away, as much as I try to drive it out."[49]
"I am a professed atheist, until I find myself in serious circumstances. Then I quickly fall on my knees, in my mind if not literally, and I say : 'Please God, save me from this.'"[49]
"I have been manipulated, and I have in turn manipulated others, by recording their response to suffering and misery. So there is guilt in every direction: guilt because I don't practise religion, guilt because I was able to walk away, while this man was dying of starvation or being murdered by another man with a gun. And I am tired of guilt, tired of saying to myself: "I didn't kill that man on that photograph, I didn't starve that child." That's why I want to photograph landscapes and flowers. I am sentencing myself to peace."[49]
"Photography for me is not looking, it's feeling. If you can't feel what you're looking at, then you're never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures."[50]
Referencesedit
^"Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
^Don McCullin at SundaySalon. Retrieved 22 March 2014
^ abCadwalladr, Carole (22 December 2012). "Don McCullin: 'Photojournalism has had it. It's all gone celebrity'". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
^ abcFlanagan, Julian (2 November 2007). "'I should have gone barmy'". Financial Times. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
^ abcdEdemariam, Aida (6 August 2005). "The human factor". The Observer. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
^Benedictus, Leo (29 March 2007). "Don McCullin's best shot". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
^ abc"Don McCullin interview: life in black & white". Amateur Photographer. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
^McCullin, Donald; Lewis Chester (2002). Unreasonable Behaviour, An Autobiography. Vintage Books. pp. 28–29. ISBN 978-0-09-943776-5.
^Peres, Michael R.; Osterman, Mark; Romer, Grant B.; Lopez, J. Tomas (2008). The Concise Focal Encyclopedia of Photography. Focal Press. ISBN 978-0-240-80998-4.
^McCullin, Donald; Lewis Chester (2002). Unreasonable Behaviour, An Autobiography. Vintage Books. pp. 137–138. ISBN 978-0-09-943776-5.
^"Just One More War". Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
^Morris, Roderick (30 October 1997). "Don McCullin's Harrowing Images of War". International Herald Tribune. Archived from the original on 17 February 2009.
^"Don McCullin". Exploring Photography. Victoria and Albert Museum. Archived from the original on 10 February 2007. Retrieved 31 March 2007.
^Das, P (January 2005), "Life interrupted—a photographic exhibition of HIV/AIDS in Africa by Don McCullin", The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 5 (1): 15, doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(04)01248-4, ISSN 1473-3099, PMID 15620555
^ abHodgson, Francis (19 October 2011). "Shaped by War: Photographs by Don McCullin, Imperial War Museum, London". Financial Times. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
^Calkin, Jessamy. "Bleak Beauty". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
^"Film in 2013". BAFTA. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
^Furness, Hannah (27 November 2015). "Don McCullin: 'Digital photography can be a totally lying experience'" – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
^""When I think of IS, I detest them beyond imagination": war photographer Don McCullin heads to Syria for new BBC4 documentary". Radio Times. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
^"Angelina Jolie to direct biopic of photographer Don McCullin starring Tom Hardy". The Guardian. 19 November 2020. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
^"1964 Don McCullin WY". World Press Photo. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
^"Don McCullin biography". Under Fire: Images from Vietnam. Piece Unique Gallery. Archived from the original on 11 March 2007. Retrieved 30 March 2007.
^"John Daniel and honorary graduate Don McCullin". Open university. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
^Royal Photographic Society's Centenary Award Archived 1 December 2012 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 13 August 2012
^"Cornell Capa Award". Archived from the original on 23 April 2007. Retrieved 31 March 2007.
^"Royal Photographic Society's Centenary Award". Archived from the original on 1 December 2012. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
^"Annual Report 2012 (p11)" (PDF). Creative Space. Hereford College of Arts. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 June 2013. Retrieved 7 December 2012.
^"Honorary graduates Archived 13 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine", University of Bath. Accessed 14 January 2012. (A list of honorary graduates of 2011.)
^"2016 Lucie Awards". Lucies.org. Retrieved 3 January 2017.