Don McCullin: Nobody wants the pictures I used to take.

[warden]

“Photojournalism is dead. We’ve become obsessed with glamour and gloss: footballers, narcissism and gossip. Nobody wants the pictures I used to take.”

Don McCullin: ‘Photographing landscapes takes my mind off all I’ve seen. It’s healing’

The photojournalist, 87, tells Michael Segalov about his tough upbringing in Finsbury Park, early success, the pleasure of reading books in old age and the death of photojournalism

www.theguardian.com

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

He also said: "I photograph landscapes now. I’m not a man at peace. I still carry guilt and pain within me. Landscapes take my mind off all I’ve seen. It’s like therapy. It’s healing."

Old age changes people. Different things become important.

 

[pentaxuser]

These are brutally honest answers that I would have expected someone brought up in a tough neighbourhood in the 1940s and who has seen and made photographs of what he has seen, to have made. They resonate with me

pentaxuser

 

[logan2z]

Here's another illuminating interview with Don McCullin from the early '90s. Some cool footage of him printing in his darkroom too.

 

[Mike Crawford]

My studio / darkroom is in Finsbury Park, and while it’s not quite as gentrified as other nearby areas, is certainly a different place to where Don grew up. I walk down the street he lived most mornings and always cite it when sending directions from the tube stations to new clients coming to visit. While he mostly prints his own work, I did a bit of work for him a few years back. It was for an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London of the heads of different faiths in the UK. Not the exhibition prints, which he did, but the smaller 12x16s to give to all the subjects. Heads of the Anglican and Catholic church, the leading Iman and Rabbi etc.
NPG link

When Don heard where I was based, he wanted to have the meeting to brief me at my work, near his old home, but sadly he didn’t have time so we met at the NPG with the curator. He’s a man with quite a dry and mournful sense of humour, as others who have worked with him will probably agree. After handing me the negatives he said something along the lines of ‘I hope these are not too much of a burden to print and if your prints are better than mine, well I will hate you forever!’ I think his tongue may have been in his cheek but can’t say for sure!

I went to the private view of the exhibition and nine of the ten subjects were there. While I don’t profess to having any religious beliefs myself, (though absolutely respect those that do), I have to admit there was a definite atmosphere and energy in the room. It was heartening to see how all these important people, with very different religious background, seemed to be getting on fine, chatting away to each other. I hope they enjoyed the refreshments as much as I did!

 

[awty]

He should join the forum, he'd fit right in.

 

[Don_ih]

He should join the forum, he'd fit right in.

I get the feeling he'd rather shoot himself.

 

[snusmumriken]

Surely he’s wrong? There is lots of bloody war photography, and photos of disasters, deprived areas, refugees, homelessness, poverty. Just not on heavily souped Tri-X.

 

[Don_ih]

Surely he’s wrong? There is lots of bloody war photography, and photos of disasters, deprived areas, refugees, homelessness, poverty. Just not on heavily souped Tri-X.

Yeah, he's wrong. But he's also remarking on the overwhelming amount of vapid imagery you see everywhere. Maybe he's just not looking in the right places. And maybe he doesn't consider stuff like the following to be real photojournalism:

from AP - today's news on the war in Ukraine.

 

[Ian David]

Surely he’s wrong? There is lots of bloody war photography, and photos of disasters, deprived areas, refugees, homelessness, poverty. Just not on heavily souped Tri-X.

But he's right in the sense that, in order to sell that stuff, you have to outcompete a hundred people with iPhones who also happened to be in the same place at the same time and will provide their images for free

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

One problem the pros have is they often have to travel to where the action is after the action is over. Amateur photographers or just ordinary people living there with their iPhones capture the action while it's happening. So while it may distress the photographic community, the fact is many of the best photos and videos in photojournalism today are not by professionals.

 

[snusmumriken]

But he's right in the sense that, in order to sell that stuff, you have to outcompete a hundred people with iPhones who also happened to be in the same place at the same time and will provide their images for free

Yes, I can see that must make life hard for the professionals, though there still are many of those guys covering disaster zones, and their photos are typically far more powerful than the phone images, and not always behind the events.

I think it's also the case that although there is an interest in disaster and tragedy far away in the world, there are no (or very few outlets) for social documentary photography that focuses on domestic issues (like McCullin's project on London's homeless).

 

[Arthurwg]

I heard him speak at ICP in New York some years ago. A very profound man. His autobiography, "Unreasonable Behavior," is a great read.

 

[moggi1964]

My studio / darkroom is in Finsbury Park, and while it’s not quite as gentrified as other nearby areas, is certainly a different place to where Don grew up. I walk down the street he lived most mornings and always cite it when sending directions from the tube stations to new clients coming to visit. While he mostly prints his own work, I did a bit of work for him a few years back. It was for an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London of the heads of different faiths in the UK. Not the exhibition prints, which he did, but the smaller 12x16s to give to all the subjects. Heads of the Anglican and Catholic church, the leading Iman and Rabbi etc.
NPG link

When Don heard where I was based, he wanted to have the meeting to brief me at my work, near his old home, but sadly he didn’t have time so we met at the NPG with the curator. He’s a man with quite a dry and mournful sense of humour, as others who have worked with him will probably agree. After handing me the negatives he said something along the lines of ‘I hope these are not too much of a burden to print and if your prints are better than mine, well I will hate you forever!’ I think his tongue may have been in his cheek but can’t say for sure!

I went to the private view of the exhibition and nine of the ten subjects were there. While I don’t profess to having any religious beliefs myself, (though absolutely respect those that do), I have to admit there was a definite atmosphere and energy in the room. It was heartening to see how all these important people, with very different religious background, seemed to be getting on fine, chatting away to each other. I hope they enjoyed the refreshments as much as I did!

Mike, that's a wonderful story and such an amazing experience.

I watched the 2012 documentary and it was a tough watch. Brought back memories of watching the BBC news and documentaries growing up in the 70's. One can fully appreciate why he finds solace in landscapes now.

Now tell us about those refreshments

 

[Steven Lee]

But he's right in the sense that, in order to sell that stuff, you have to outcompete a hundred people with iPhones who also happened to be in the same place at the same time and will provide their images for free

Exactly, because out of that hundred there's always a handful few who're genuinely talented. I am convinced that there's a certain % of the population who just naturally make great photos without being a professional photogs or even "enthusiasts". They're natural born composition masters who've never even touched a photography book and never used anything but an iphone.

 

[Don_ih]

If it's no surprise that people can recognize a good photo when they see it, it should be no surprise that many can recognize it as they take it using their phone. And even more people will recognize when a situation should be photographed (they may not do it very well, though). General journalistic photos don't tend to need to be masterpieces, anyway.

 

[MattKing]

I've always thought that the title of this is incomplete.
It really should be: "Nobody wants to pay for the pictures I used to take."

 

[Don_ih]

I've always thought that the title of this is incomplete.
It really should be: "Nobody wants to pay for the pictures I used to take."

No. I think if you pay attention to other things McCullin has said, he mean no one wants photos like the ones he used to take. His photos were up close, immersive, completely focused on the actual violence of the situation. He didn't stand a mile away with a 500mm lens.

A lot of the photos published that you see of the war in Ukraine look like a movie set. Photos from after - it's safe. Here's a clump from the immediate search results for "bombed ukraine"

I don't mean there is no value in contemporary photography of these things. I think the type of photojournalism Don McCullin did and was permitted to do - the access he had - is just no longer permitted.

 

[MattKing]

No. I think if you pay attention to other things McCullin has said, he mean no one wants photos like the ones he used to take. His photos were up close, immersive, completely focused on the actual violence of the situation. He didn't stand a mile away with a 500mm lens.

And because no one wants to see those on their Instagram or Twitter feed - where people now consume "journalism" - no one wants to pay someone who makes them.
It is all part of the whole.

 

[GregY]

No. I think if you pay attention to other things McCullin has said, he mean no one wants photos like the ones he used to take. His photos were up close, immersive, completely focused on the actual violence of the situation. He didn't stand a mile away with a 500mm lens.

A lot of the photos published that you see of the war in Ukraine look like a movie set. Photos from after - it's safe. Here's a clump from the immediate search results for "bombed ukraine"

View attachment 349353

I don't mean there is no value in contemporary photography of these things. I think the type of photojournalism Don McCullin did and was permitted to do - the access he had - is just no longer permitted.

There is another style Don_ .......sometimes closer with a Widelux. https://www.volkskrant.nl/kijkverder/v/2023/de-oorlog-is-smerig-die-heeft-geen-kleur-nodig~v644934/?referrer=https://www.google.com/

Eddy Van Wessel – The Edge Of Civilization | MONOVISIONS - Black & White Photography Magazine

Photojournalist Eddy Van Wessel has journeyed time and again to conflicted regions in order to document the lives of people and refugees there. Bosnia, Gaza, Chechnya, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria have all been the subject of his award-winning photographs. This book offers an intimate and...

monovisions.com

 

[Don_ih]

no one wants to pay someone who makes them

There has been a trend to "incorporate" the photo-taking as part of the journalist's role for lots of articles of various types.

It is, however, naive to think that those in positions of power are not even more safeguarded than ever about their activities becoming public. If it had ever come down to it, McCullin's film could have been confiscated (if a situation warranted it). There's no such option, now. An embedded journalist can get a photo to a publication as it's being taken.

So who would allow that to happen?

 

[Don_ih]

There is another style

I never imagined there wasn't.

 

[GregY]

I never imagined there wasn't.

Well your exaggerations about the 500 mm lens say the opposite.

 

[Don_ih]

Well your exaggerations about the 500 mm lens say the opposite.

Uh, well, I did only say that was what McCullin did not do. Did I say everyone else did it?

 

[GregY]

Uh, well, I did only say that was what McCullin did not do. Did I say everyone else did it?

Don McCullin had a good run.
James Nachtwey is still at it.... another photojournalist without a 500mm.
Seems pretty easy to snipe from an armchair in Ontario.

The Costs of the Russian Onslaught in Ukraine

Destruction, brutality, and terrible loss in Bucha, Kharkiv, Irpin, and elsewhere.

www.newyorker.com