Very beautiful and moving piece written by his wife, Catherine Fairweather.
Excerpt:
— After years of covering wars and conflict zones, natural disasters, famines and poverty, Don acknowledges, “I am tired of the guilt, of saying to myself I didn’t kill that man in that photograph, I didn’t starve that child. I realise I’ve made a bit of a reputation out of covering war at the expense of other people’s lives — I don’t sleep very well on that thought. Those experiences come back at night to haunt me. That is why I want to photograph landscapes, flowers and statues. I am sentencing myself to peace.”
Excerpt:
— After years of covering wars and conflict zones, natural disasters, famines and poverty, Don acknowledges, “I am tired of the guilt, of saying to myself I didn’t kill that man in that photograph, I didn’t starve that child. I realise I’ve made a bit of a reputation out of covering war at the expense of other people’s lives — I don’t sleep very well on that thought. Those experiences come back at night to haunt me. That is why I want to photograph landscapes, flowers and statues. I am sentencing myself to peace.”
In the mountains of eastern Turkey, Don McCullin seeks the solace of stone
Why the veteran war photographer is ‘sentencing himself to peace’ in the ancient world