Don McCullin – A Powerful Collection
This book was a Christmas present a couple of years ago. As I’ve mentioned earlier in the course, I’ve admired Don McCullin’s work for many years, and I truly believe his imagery was one of the key things that drew me into photography in the first place.
At its core, this book is a chronological collection of McCullin’s greatest work, from his early days on the streets of London to his coverage of the Berlin Wall and his iconic images of Vietnam, Biafra, and beyond. It’s simply put together—the only narrative comes from the introduction and an essay titled Witnessing by Susan Sontag, allowing the images to speak for themselves.
The cover features a cropped version of one of the most iconic war photos of all time—the Shell-shocked US soldier in Vietnam—and it hints at the powerful treasures contained within.
McCullin’s photography is compelling because of his closeness to his subjects. The opening line of the introduction says, “Don McCullin has the bottle,” and I think this sums up his approach perfectly. His style is perhaps Capra-esque, but with a deeper intimacy—there’s a clear empathy in the images he produces. There’s little that could be described as voyeurism in his work.
Sontag, in her essay, discusses the idea of “witnessing,” noting how “upsetting photographs have the quality of being memorable—that is, unforgettable.”
All the images in the book are in black and white, which, I feel, strengthens each image. There are no distractions, allowing the stories to unfold clearly, whether it’s a hurried shot taken while under fire in the Mekong Delta in 1970, or portraits of tribespeople in rural Indonesia.
Overall, this is a powerful body of work, and the most overwhelming takeaway from the book is summed up by Sontag in this quote:
“A photograph can’t coerce. It won’t do the moral work for us. But it can start us on the way.”
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