The photographer has been to the dark heart of many of the world’s worst conflicts, with heartbreaking results, writes Michael Murray-Fennell
IT was an act of violence that launched Don McCullin’s career as a photojournalist. In 1958, a policeman was fatally stabbed in Finsbury Park, north London, sparking a debate in the media about delinquency and violence. The photographer was from that neighbourhood and knew its gangs well.
He’d photographed one tough group, nicknamed The Guvnors, within the ruins of a burned-out house, showing them in their Teddy Boy suits and Elvis pompadours and full of aggressive street swagger. In the wake of the killing, The Observer ran his photograph across a half page. He was 23.
Over the following three decades, violence became the epicentre of his work as he photographed conflicts around the world, including Vietnam and Cambodia, Beirut and Bangladesh and, closer to home, Northern Ireland. Now, Sir Don is the subject of a major Tate Britain retrospective, the first living British photographer to have a career survey at the museum.
This story is from the March 06, 2019 edition of Country Life UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the March 06, 2019 edition of Country Life UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Tales as old as time
By appointing writers-in-residence to landscape locations, the National Trust is hoping to spark in us a new engagement with our ancient surroundings, finds Richard Smyth
Do the active farmer test
Farming is a profession, not a lifestyle choice’ and, therefore, the Budget is unfair
Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin
Charlotte Mullins comments on Moght Thoughts
SOS: save our wild salmon
Jane Wheatley examines the dire situation facing the king of fish
Into the deep
Beneath the crystal-clear, alien world of water lie the great piscean survivors of the Ice Age. The Lake District is a fish-spotter's paradise, reports John Lewis-Stempel
It's alive!
Living, burping and bubbling fermented masses of flour, yeast and water that spawn countless loaves—Emma Hughes charts the rise and rise) of sourdough starters
There's orange gold in them thar fields
A kitchen staple that is easily taken for granted, the carrot is actually an incredibly tricky customer to cultivate that could reduce a grown man to tears, says Sarah Todd
True blues
I HAVE been planting English bluebells. They grow in their millions in the beechwoods that surround us—but not in our own garden. They are, however, a protected species. The law is clear and uncompromising: ‘It is illegal to dig up bluebells or their bulbs from the wild, or to trade or sell wild bluebell bulbs and seeds.’ I have, therefore, had to buy them from a respectable bulb-merchant.
Oh so hip
Stay the hand that itches to deadhead spent roses and you can enjoy their glittering fruits instead, writes John Hoyland
A best kept secret
Oft-forgotten Rutland, England's smallest county, is a 'Notswold' haven deserving of more attention, finds Nicola Venning
