Listen to BBC Radio 4 ..here...
Don McCullin is a professional photographer, best known as a photographer of conflict and combat, in battle zones from Vietnam to the Falklands. Don McCullin has just published his latest book entitled Shaped by War and has a photographic exhibition of the same name at the Imperial War Museum North, in Manchester. Don has also captured on camera the still lives and landscapes in his home county of Somerset, as well as the tranquillity of the ancient ruins on his journeys across the Roman Empire published under the title Southern Frontiers.
I Listened to the BBC Radio 4 interview, Excess Baggage, Travellers tales from around the world.
Don McCullin grew up in south London and didn't have a very privileged upbringing. It was probably this which made him look to leave home. At that time people left school at 14 or 15 with no education. He went for national service and applied for the RAF stationed in Oxfordshire. He wanted to move further afield and was sent to Egypt, however the first year he was behind barbed wire so wasn't that enthralling. Eventually he moved to Nairobi and then his photography and experiences got under way.
Back in London he was involved with a local discrepancy / altocation and took photographs and he managed to sell them to the Observer newspaper, for a fee of £50. This is where it started and he was given a contract, for a 2 day week with the paper.
In 1961 he went to see the Berlin wall being built.. He has been to many a tense and dangerous place. In the 60/70/80's it was easier to travel, with less security and he was excited to travel, now he dreads the airports and travel. In these times he travelled light, with three cameras, two light meters and rolls of film. Also he took breakfast as hated being hungry in the mornings !!
He said he didn't feel in danger in the war zones, it was his choice to be there and he knew what he was letting himself in for, so he felt like he could complain. He loved to work alone and took pictures of the starving and dying - sometimes people were asking him for help but he was unable - this still haunts him today. He now doesn't want to see that desperation in peoples eyes. He travelled some beautiful places and was able to photograph the countries as well as the people in them.
He loves to photograph landscapes, they are his medication and meditation ... He find landscapes reviving..
This is the paradise at the end of his garden at home.
When asked why his landscapes are so often of winter he says, there is a darkness about him, he still uses film and he wants to make shots that are noticeable .... He loves the naked English countryside, just because trees are naked doesn't mean they are dead.
His book Southern Frontiers ( a journey across the Roman Empire ) .. He was asked if he felt the shadows cast by the past, he says there is always danger in these places, and he can hear the distant cries of others.
He has taken some beautiful pictures of areas with war and tanks just around the corner, quite surreal. He still take pictures of people with caution as people can get upset and be aggressive towards him, always be careful.
Sommerset is his sanctuary, his spiritual home and now looks forward to that, he needs comfort and a hot bath and be at peace with himself.
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