Philadelphia
The image of the late war correspondent Marie Colvin in last week's Weekend FT was haunting. Not surprisingly, the photograph was taken by Sir Donald McCullin, 83, whose images have haunted us for six decades.
McCullin is having a well-deserved moment these days, largely due to a massive retrospective of his work now underway at London's Tate Britain Gallery. This is the Tate Gallery's first-ever photography retrospective, featuring 250 silver-gelatin, black and white images hand printed by McCullin himself. They underscore his singular power to compel us to see and feel the human reaction to war, tension, violence and poverty. Indeed, McCullin teaches us plenty about the powers of observation in leadership and life as well as the profound difference between looking at something and actually seeing it.
Don't call him a war photographer, however. He hates that moniker. Though he has shot wars in Vietnam, Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Lebanon, Congo, Iraq and, just last year, Syria, McCullin's portfolio is broader than just documenting combat. Some refer to him as a "conflict" photographer because he captures conflict in so many forms. In that context, as a young man, he photographed gang members in his rough London neighborhood of Finsbury Park. Ironically, that "hobby" eventually showed him the way out of his dead-end surroundings.
In addition to the Marie Colvin photo below, other McCullin images here include a Turkish-Cypriot woman learning that her husband was killed in the Cyprus Civil War in 1964, U.S. Marines evacuating one of their own while under sniper fire in Vietnam in 1968, and Catholic youths confronting British soldiers in Northern Ireland in 1971.
The image of the late war correspondent Marie Colvin in last week's Weekend FT was haunting. Not surprisingly, the photograph was taken by Sir Donald McCullin, 83, whose images have haunted us for six decades.
McCullin is having a well-deserved moment these days, largely due to a massive retrospective of his work now underway at London's Tate Britain Gallery. This is the Tate Gallery's first-ever photography retrospective, featuring 250 silver-gelatin, black and white images hand printed by McCullin himself. They underscore his singular power to compel us to see and feel the human reaction to war, tension, violence and poverty. Indeed, McCullin teaches us plenty about the powers of observation in leadership and life as well as the profound difference between looking at something and actually seeing it.
Don't call him a war photographer, however. He hates that moniker. Though he has shot wars in Vietnam, Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Lebanon, Congo, Iraq and, just last year, Syria, McCullin's portfolio is broader than just documenting combat. Some refer to him as a "conflict" photographer because he captures conflict in so many forms. In that context, as a young man, he photographed gang members in his rough London neighborhood of Finsbury Park. Ironically, that "hobby" eventually showed him the way out of his dead-end surroundings.
In addition to the Marie Colvin photo below, other McCullin images here include a Turkish-Cypriot woman learning that her husband was killed in the Cyprus Civil War in 1964, U.S. Marines evacuating one of their own while under sniper fire in Vietnam in 1968, and Catholic youths confronting British soldiers in Northern Ireland in 1971.
Images Courtesy of Don McCullin.