DON MCCULLIN - "A Retrospective," Winnipeg Art Gallery, Oct. 29, 2013 to Jan. 12, 2014
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© Don McCullin / Contact Press Images.
"Along the Ganges during the Sonepur Mela festival"
Don McCullin, "Along the Ganges during the Sonepur Mela festival," Bihar, India,1993, platinum print.
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© Don McCullin / Contact Press Images.
"American soldiers, Checkpoint Charlie"
Don McCullin, "American soldiers, Checkpoint Charlie," West Berlin, August 1961, gelatin silver print.
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© Don McCullin / Contact Press Images.
"Turkish defender leaving the side-entrance of a cinema"
Don McCullin, "Turkish defender leaving the side-entrance of a cinema," Limassol, Cyprus, 1964, gelatin silver print.
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© Don McCullin / Contact Press Images.
"Shell-shocked US Marine awaits evacuation, Tet Offensive"
Don McCullin, "Shell-shocked US Marine awaits evacuation, Tet Offensive," Hué, South Vietnam, February 1968, gelatin silver print.
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© Don McCullin / Contact Press Images.
"Old Vietnamese man, Tet Offensive"
Don McCullin, "Old Vietnamese man, Tet Offensive," Hué, South Vietnam, February 1968, gelatin silver print.
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© Don McCullin / Contact Press Images.
"Protester, Cuban missile crisis"
Don McCullin, "Protester, Cuban missile crisis," Whitehall, London, 1962, gelatin silver print.
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© Don McCullin / Contact Press Images.
"Catholic youth escaping a CS gas assault in the Bogside, Londonderry"
Don McCullin, "Catholic youth escaping a CS gas assault in the Bogside, Londonderry," Northern Ireland, 1971, gelatin silver print.
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© Don McCullin / Contact Press Images.
"Jean, a homeless woman"
Don McCullin, "Jean, a homeless woman," Aldgate, East End, London, 1984, printed c. 1985, gelatin silver print. © Don McCullin / Contact Press Images
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© Don McCullin / Contact Press Images.
"At a café in Finsbury Park"
Don McCullin, "At a café in Finsbury Park," London 1958, gelatin silver print.
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© Don McCullin / Contact Press Images.
"Homeless Irishman"
Don McCullin, "Homeless Irishman," Aldgate, East End, London, 1970, gelatin silver print.
Don McCullin - A Retrospective
Winnipeg Art Gallery
Oct. 29, 2013 to Jan. 12, 2014
By Sarah Swan
The beauty of a retrospective is that it gives a fuller picture of the artist himself, rather than merely showing a particular stage of artistic development. Organized by Ann Thomas, the National Gallery of Canada’s photography curator, this exhibition’s 130 or so gelatin silver prints tell profound stories of many of the world’s most dangerous conflict zones: Ethiopia, Biafra, Congo, Cambodia, Vietnam, Cyprus. But they also tell the story of Don McCullin, the British photojournalist who made them.
Here is a rare individual, a man who chose to spend more than 50 years documenting conflict, seeking a more intimate picture of suffering than most in his line of work. He said he would not do what he called the despicable thing, stealing a shot from the safety of a car, but instead resolved to get close to his subjects – “not even a foot or an inch away.” It’s little wonder then that McCullin’s photographs were widely published in major newspapers and magazines, including the Observer, the Sunday Times and the Daily Telegraph.
Viewing his work is unsettling, but necessary. There is horror and sadness when looking at a Palestinian family fleeing a massacre, or a kneeling Vietnamese civilian being tormented by three American marines. Particularly harrowing is a series from Biafra, where McCullin walked into a school and found 800 starving children “standing on their dying legs.”
Still, after reaction comes appreciation. The power of the photographs also lies in their skilful compositions and rich tonalities. McCullin prints his images a little on the dark side, so that ethereal elements like cloud, fog and smoke take on a real presence, becoming as corporeal as any human subject. His artistic choices bring to mind a statement by American photographer Dorothea Lange. “There is no real warfare between the artist and the documentary photographer,” she said. “He has to be both.”
Walking through the exhibition, past conflict after conflict, we can’t help but feel an awareness of the man behind the camera. We can’t help but wonder about the resolve it must have taken to insert himself repeatedly into violence, as a way of life, and how this may have shaped or damaged him.
The exhibition’s final series contains the late-career landscapes McCullin made as a way of forgetting war, revolution and dying children. It’s interesting that even his images of the pastoral British countryside evoke battlefields. His winter scenes are harsh, with the same steel-grey skies and muddy roads as his war images. It’s almost as if McCullin could not leave war behind. Hadrian’s Wall, Northumberland comes closest to forgetful escape. The heavy snow that buries an ancient military fort is startlingly pure, making it look devoid of human presence, completely untouched.
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