Synopses & Reviews
The story of a legendary photographers' life and work is also a remarkable and devastating visual document of war and warfareNo other photographer in modern times has recorded war and its aftermath as widely and unsparingly as Don McCullin. After a London childhood during the Blitz, McCullin feels his life has indeed been shaped by war. From the building of the Berlin Wall at the height of the Cold War to El Salvador and Kurdistan, McCullin has covered the major conflicts of the last 50 years, with the notable exception of the Falklands, for which he was denied access. This remarkable narrative of McCullin's life contains a collection of pictures of him in the field with key photographs from his career. Whenever possible emphasis has been placed on the presentation of previously unpublished material. The inclusion of rarely-seen color work challenges the conventional appraisal of McCullin's world being exclusively black and white. Numerous documents, original publications, and personal mementoes are reproduced, including his cameras, boots, helmet, numerous passports, and illuminating personal correspondence. McCullin recounts the course of his professional life in a series of devastating texts on war, the events, and the power of photography. The brutality of conflict returns over and over again, and here McCullin voices his despair.
Synopsis
No other photographer in modern times has recorded war and its aftermath as widely and unsparingly as Don McCullin. After a childhood in London during the Blitz, and after the hardships of evacuation, McCullin feels his life has indeed been shaped by war.
From the building of the Berlin Wall at the height of the Cold War to El Salvador and Kurdistan, McCullin has covered the major conflicts of the last fifty years, with the notable exception of the Falklands, for which he was denied access. His pictures from the Citadel in Hue and in the ruins of Beirut are among the most unflinching records of modern war. The publication of many of his greatest stories in the Sunday Times magazine did much to raise the consciousness of a generation, even if he himself now fears that photographs cannot prevent history from repeating itself. The brutality of conflict returns over and over again. McCullin here voices his despair.
McCullin recounts the course of his professional life in a series of devastating texts on war, the events and the power of photography. The conclusion of the book marks McCullin's retreat to the Somerset landscape surrounding his home, where the dark skies over England remind him yet again of images of war. Despite the sense of belonging and even contentment, for him there is no final escape.
About the Author
Don McCullin worked for the Sunday Times for 18 years and covered every major conflict in his adult lifetime until the Falklands War, which the British government refused to grant him a press pass to cover, as his work was considered so powerful and evocative. His most recent books include Don McCullin in Africa, In England, Southern Frontiers, and his definitive monograph Don McCullin.