Don McCullin


Fantastic exhibition at Tate Britain looking at the career of photographer Don McCullin.

McCullan is a documentary photographer who has specialised in conflicts and social issues. McCullan printed all the works for his show himself and he returns time and again to pictures to try to get the best copy of it to honour the subjects of the work however in doing this he is revisting painful memories. The show did not shy away from talking about the effect of doing this work on McCullan himself.

The show was arranged by conflict beginning and ending with issues in Britain and featuring work at the end which he does to try to work through things he has seen and been part of during his career.

I love the way McCullan catches a moment and freezes it in time. Some of the war pictures were very hard to look at but I found the hardest amongst dead bodies and starving children were actually some of prisoners in the Congo being tormented before they were shot. A hideous record of mans’ inhumanity.

My favourite pictures were the one shown here of American soldiers in Berlin looking over the wall looking like statues on a medieval cathedral and a charming one of a small boy and a cat from 1950s London set against adverts painted on a wall.

Closes on 6 May 2019

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