70+ Years of Absolutely Pointless Conflict Photography // Don McCullin

[00:00:00]At the age of 90, this photographer, often regarded as the most celebrated living British photographer, continues to create compelling work stating, "I need a challenge. My greatest fear is sitting and staring out of a window without the passion to do anything anymore." He has spent over 70 years photographing a variety of genres while creating equally compelling images in each. These include the documentation of London's East End, wars in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, and the mastery of still life, portrait, archaeological, and landscape genres. Summarizing his passion for the medium in way that shows why he was able to create powerful images regardless of what he pointed his camera at, he stated, "Photography for me is not looking, it's feeling. If you can't feel what you're looking at, then you're never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures." This is Insight for Inspiration, Don McCullin.

[00:00:54]Don McCullin was born in 1935. He grew up under the conditions of World War II London, involved Hitler's incredibly destructive bombing of the city, and an introduction into an early life of poverty. From 1948 to 1950, he studied painting at the Hammersmith School of Arts and Crafts before moving on to become a color mixer for a cartoon studio. A short time later, he joined the Royal Air Force and took on stints in Egypt, Kenya, and Cyprus. Upon his return from service, he began to create images of his friends [music] who were part of a local gang called The Governors. At age 23, this work became his first commission, which was bought and published by The Observer in 1959, launching the lifelong photography career that would follow. Early on, McCullin won multiple awards that helped his career to thrive. For example, a photo essay made about the Berlin Wall in 1961 that showcased his ability to focus on how the everyman interacted with historical events when they were directly impacting their lives as they unfolded. In Berlin in particular, this work observed how people became segregated by the wall as it was being constructed. The human element that he brought to this issue became a signature of all the similar kinds of work around historic events that he would go on to cover.

[00:02:08]The war photos that he created in Cyprus in 1964 stand out as an early highlight of his career in a similar way where it broken out between Greek and Turkish citizens of Cyprus. And the images that he created there were his first attempts at conflict photography. The genre that his name would eventually become attached to. Again, he showed the depth of emotion taking place by not only focusing on the aftermath in relation to those killed, but through the grief shown on the faces of family members who witnessed it. Explaining this situation in Cyprus, McCullin stated, "I felt I'd chosen the right thing to do because I found what I was photographing so outrageous that I couldn't wait to get back to England and see the pictures published to show the world how wrong it was. When you're young and ambitious, you haven't really worked it all out.

[00:02:52]You're drawn to this tragedy, but it doesn't belong to you. You're imposing yourself upon the situation. You're not welcome or invited, and you're stealing in a way. You're stealing other people's emotional tragedies. You're stealing images of people dead who haven't given you consent. I was aware it wasn't totally right, and I believe it to this day.

[00:03:12]That's why I come back here and do the English landscape.

[00:03:16]I feel as if I have to release myself from my guilt, which I still carry. This work was incredibly impactful and came with international recognition, a World Press Photos award, and helped to secure membership with Magnum not long afterwards in 1967.

[00:03:31]For almost two decades, he focused exclusively on conflict photography. It took him all over the world to places like Biafra, the Vietnam War, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the Lebanese Civil War, the Belgian Congo, the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, and the fall of Phnom Penh. He used tactics others wouldn't try to get inside these conflict areas.

[00:03:50]For example, in the Congo, in order to go where other media affiliates couldn't reach, McCullin pretended to be a mercenary and gained access to the front lines of the conflicts. This put him in a lot of potential danger, but that was an element of this lifestyle that he embraced.

[00:04:05]There were multiple accounts of times where he put photography aside to save the lives of individuals and get them to safety by carrying them on his back.

[00:04:13]He often engaged with people in this way and others, which allowed him to get heavily impactful images.

[00:04:18]Like a portrait of a shell-shocked US Marine in Vietnam.

[00:04:21]On the shell-shocked US Marine photo, it's renowned. In his feeling about creating the conflict photos that he did, McCullin had different thoughts than you might expect, stating, "I'm slightly fed up with my more known pictures, because they're classically iconically composed. So, what are they saying?

[00:04:39]They could almost be negative, because they're too perfectly designed by me.

[00:04:43]The people would say, 'It's almost artistic.' I'm afraid of falling off that very fine line.

[00:04:48]I never harmed any of the people in my pictures. I didn't kill them. I didn't torture them the way this man has been tortured by his own breakdown.

[00:04:57]Every night, I remember the battle that that man was in. I didn't get his damaged brain, but my brain has never been free of certain images. I have bad dreams and then pause every night before I sleep.

[00:05:09]But, I've never suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. I was moving fast. I never go straight back to another war.

[00:05:16]There's an adrenaline rush. It's all very selfish and stupid. But, you're not telling the truth if you say you didn't find some side of it exciting. The excitement of incoming shells. But, then you think, 'That shell just blew some guy's leg off, or killed another four or five guys.'

[00:05:31]I've been swimming in a whirlpool of huge misadventure. And it's been a cesspit, really, my life.

[00:05:38]There's no other way of describing it.

[00:05:40]I've risked my life a few times. I was in a gun battle once in Cyprus.

[00:05:44]And I I an old lady who couldn't walk. I thought, "If somebody doesn't do something, that old girl is going to die in the next 5 minutes." I gave my friend my cameras and ran and picked her up and then ran back with her. I thought, "I can't keep taking all the time.

[00:06:00]You've got to do something. Give something back." In Vietnam, I carried a soldier away from the battle on my shoulders. I'd been hit by a bullet and was in such pain. I thought, "I've been stealing all these years.

[00:06:13]I've got to hand some of that back. But, you risk your life doing it."

[00:06:18]At first, his work continued to appear in The Observer until he became almost exclusively connected to The Sunday Times from 1966 to 1984. His work became beloved for its ability to use outstanding light and composition in a way that created photos that had a narrative quality to them, allowing viewers to question what would happen next to the characters within each frame. Something that Sasse in his own words, "Photography has given me a life.

[00:06:41]The very least I could do is try to articulate these stories with as much compassion and clarity as they deserve with as loud a voice as I could muster."

[00:06:49]Continuing this train of thought, his website states, "He's been shot and badly wounded in Cambodia, imprisoned in Uganda, expelled from Vietnam, and had a bounty on his head in Lebanon. What's more, he has braved bullets and bombs not only to get the perfect shot, but to help dying soldiers and wounded civilians.

[00:07:07]Compassion is at the heart of all his photography. Throughout all of this, he showed bravery and determination to cover each event in close proximity and to do it with the willingness to take on any adversity that might come his way.

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[00:07:48]McCullin's work is heightened because of how skilled he is in the darkroom. His retrospective that took place in 2021 at Tate Liverpool was put together with work that was entirely printed by the photographer himself. His abilities in printmaking and getting the images to look and feel exactly how he wants them to are another of the many factors that contribute to their appeal. On printing, he stated, "Darkness to me is energy.

[00:08:11]When I energize my prints in the darkroom, I inject more and more darkness into them, but I don't consider it to be darkness. I consider it to be strength."

[00:08:20]The beauty of his printing goes hand in hand with the other sometimes overlooked aspects of McCullin's work. In writing by University of South Wales Professor of Photography Mark Durden, he points this out stating, "With McCullin's pictures, content understandably dominates.

[00:08:36]This means we do not always address their extraordinary formal brilliance.

[00:08:41]His pictures bring the grace and beauty associated with Henri Cartier-Bresson's decisive moment into war zones.

[00:08:48]There's a lyrical aspect to many as he responds to the excessive power and force of gestures of suffering and grief.

[00:08:56]On occasion, he also registers jubilation. For example, the portrait of the young stone thrower in Derry caught mid-air as he jumps with joy, hands uplifted and face beaming as he addresses his triumph to the youth standing before him. It is distinct from earlier pictures of the protest on the streets in the UK where protesters used their bodies as resistance as they are pictured blocking the street or being dragged by police.

[00:09:21]McCullin's photography expands into a wide variety of subgenres because war photography wasn't the only thing that he wanted to be remembered for. So, he began to focus on pressing issues at home that primarily centered on less fortunate individuals in the working class in and areas of Britain. Although a lot of value can come from conflict photography, he still wanted to expand his craft into other areas. I had long been uncomfortable with my label of war photographer, which suggested an almost exclusive interest in the suffering of other people. I knew I was capable of another voice. To do this, he connected himself with more peaceful subject matter and stories in Indonesia, India, and Africa to tap into the people and places that had limited exposure to the west up to that point. Additionally, beginning in the 1980s, he created a project around cultures and architecture that were impacted by the Roman Empire in ways that are still present today.

[00:10:14]That work continued in three different projects from 2010 onwards, Southern Frontiers, A Journey Across the Roman Empire, Journeys Across Roman Asia Minor, and the Roman Conceit, his most recently completed project, which came out in 2025.

[00:10:31]By the mid-80s, the style of photography McCullin had always produced for the Sunday Times was no longer of interest to the paper once it was acquired by Rupert Murdoch. So, McCullin moved on to other things. It was around this time that he began to work on a series that he spent over 30 years on, which involved documenting the English countryside. On this work and the change that took place in his life, McCullin stated, "I can stand in these fields for two or three hours and not get a picture. That doesn't mean to say I'm disappointed. I've had the privilege of standing there.

[00:11:01]There's nothing greater.

[00:11:03]Photojournalism has taken a nose dive and it's because newspaper proprietors want beautiful women, rich people, and celebrities.

[00:11:11]They do not want my kind of pictures in their paper spoiling their day. They don't want that tragedy." Throughout this period, he also worked extensively on still lives that all draw their inspiration from Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painters. McCullin has also used three projects to find his own peace after so many years working under brutal conditions in conflict [music] zones.

[00:11:31]In observation of why he moved on to still lives, McCullin reflected, "I study things.

[00:11:36]You watch tulips.

[00:11:38]They start in a very kind of pristine way.

[00:11:40]And in the end, they start dancing in different directions.

[00:11:44]This is free of charge, a total joy.

[00:11:47]You can't say to me, 'Don't photograph us in our death.'"

[00:11:51]Regardless of his very long-term attempts to disconnect himself from an exclusive focus on suffering, he was never truly able to escape it entirely.

[00:12:00]In 2015, he created work in northern Iraq to document Kurdish people struggling against ISIS, Syria, and Turkey.

[00:12:08]And now, he's working on what will be his final book. The book focuses on Vietnam, includes images that are said to have had a huge impact on turning the public's view on the war.

[00:12:18]The events he captured there still haunt him.

[00:12:20]And that plays a part into why that's his final work. "They bother me at night when I go to bed. They come uninvited back to me. And then I start saying, 'Could I have done better?

[00:12:31]Could I have done this or that?'

[00:12:33]The final big battle I was in was in 1968.

[00:12:37]I saw an awful lot of American soldiers getting killed very close to me.

[00:12:40]What often comes up with conflict photography is whether or not it actually has any impact on the world in a way that enacts any kind of positive change that those who capture it would like to see.

[00:12:51]McCullin has summarized his feelings on this in a recent interview stating, "At the end of the day, it's done absolutely no good at all.

[00:12:59]Look at Ukraine. Look at Gaza. I haven't changed a solitary thing. I mean it. I feel as if I've been riding on other people's pain over the last 60 years.

[00:13:08]And their pain hasn't helped to prevent this kind of tragedy. We've learned nothing."

[00:13:13]There's a sad tragedy that comes with looking at McCullin's work, knowing that even though he's created so many incredible images, he feels that they've done nothing. And I believe most of us would agree that conflict photography more or less feels like it has less and less of a point as wars continue to start. Rage on and instantly show themselves on our social media feeds only to be forgotten by the masses once another newer conflict emerges. But, that's also a dangerous path we can continue to go down until it reveals only that all art is pointless and that nothing we create has any true value since we all die in the end anyways.

[00:13:49]I feel the true value of this kind of work doesn't come through the ending of wars or conflicts because those are always going to happen no matter what we do.

[00:13:57]But, building up an empathy between those of us who take these kinds of images and the people who see them in our daily lives and how we might impact the world for positive change around us in a direct way that we can actually influence is exactly why these images are not pointless.

[00:14:14]There's only so much that we can do as individuals but if work as powerful as Don McCullin's exist in the world, maybe it has the power to change us in other ways as we examine all of the range of emotion that comes with the human experience and how we might bring positive sides of that range out more ourselves on a day-to-day basis.

[00:14:31]I hope you found the work of Don McCullin as inspiring as I did and potentially use it as a way to reflect on how you could bring some positive change into your world in any way, big or small. Thanks for watching. Please like, share, comment, and subscribe and until next time, keep developing.