Reading List

I really enjoyed this autobiography by Don McCullin. I had been wanting to read it for a long time, and it didn’t disappoint.

Don McCullin isn’t necessarily my favourite photographer in this genre, in terms of imagery at least, but I find the man fascinating, and I could ‘listen’ to him for a long time.

I have a great admiration for War Photographers, incidentally this is a tag that McCullin himself seems to abhor. I think that it is an incredibly difficult job and, of course, inherently dangerous. But many people seem to right these people off as callous, thrill-seeking individuals who have no compassion for their subjects.

I think this is a difficult subject and, from anything I have read or watched at least, it is something that war journalists seem to struggle with themselves. They seem to go through an internal struggle of self-justification about what they do and why they do it.

There is a line in the documentary ‘Shooting Robert King’ where he is asked if he thinks that all war journalists are damaged goods. He laughs and answers, “If they weren’t when they get in, they are when they get out.”

I think that Don McCullin would agree with this statement. The saddest thing about this book is that McCullin seems to think that his whole career was a waste of time.

I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in this genre of photography.