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Don McCullin Biography

Photojournalist

Don McCullin, a renowned British war photographer, was born on October 9, 1935. His photography is known for its profound social insight and its raw documentation of the残酷ness of war.

Ifs Mind Fall Serious Circumstances Please Atheist Knees Save Me

Author:Don McCullin

“I want to be the toughest photographer in the world.”

World Want Photographer

Author:Don McCullin

“Photography isn't about seeing, it's about feeling. If I don't have some kind of feeling for what I'm shooting, how can I expect the person who looks at it to feel anything?”

Ifs Feels Looks Kind Persons Feelings Seeing Photography Shooting

Author:Don McCullin

“Photography's a case of keeping all the pores of the skin open, as well as the eyes. A lot of photographers today think that by putting on the uniform, the fishing vest, and all the Nikons, that that makes them a photographer. But it doesn't. It's not just seeing. It's feeling.”

Thinking Wells Feelings Eye Today Cases Seeing Photography Skins Photographer Fishing Uniforms Vests Nikon

Author:Don McCullin

“Photography has been very, very generous to me, but at the same time has damaged me.”

Has Beens Photography Generous

Author:Don McCullin

“I feel shabby - because I've made a name, quite a good name, out of photography. And I still find myself asking the same questions: Who am I? What am I supposed to be? What have I done?”

Feels Made Stills Done Names Photography Asking Supposed To Be Shabby

Author:Don McCullin

“You cannot walk on the water of hunger, misery, and death. You have to wade through to record them.”

Water Walks Records Misery Hunger Wade

Author:Don McCullin

“Sometimes it felt like I was carrying pieces of human flesh back home with me, not negatives. It's as if you are carrying the suffering of the people you have photographed.”

People Ifs Humans Sometimes Home Suffering Felt Pieces Flesh Back Home

Author:Don McCullin

“I don't want to die for a few pictures. I want to live for every sunrise I can clap my eyes on; I want to see my family get older; I want to see the world try and get a bit more peaceful and understanding, which unfortunately I don't think I'll ever see.”

Thinking World Want Trying I Can Eye Dies Bits Understanding My Family Peaceful Sunrise Wanting To Die

Author:Don McCullin

“I think, the more of a student I am, the better it will be for my work because it means once you have too many accolades you don't try harder. I would never allow myself to think that I don't have to try harder. I like the idea of always learning, always trying to do better. The word "master" sits uneasy on my terms.”

Thinking Trying Mean Term Students Uneasy

Author:Don McCullin

“I'm lucky - I don't feel any pressure.”

Lucky

Author:Don McCullin

“Beauty is a dangerous word. Beauty becomes slightly indulgent for me. It's a snatched kind of moment for me because I'm entitled to a nice day in my life but beauty creeps close to narcissism, which I really dislike, particularly in human beings who were born with good looks, who cash in on it. It's a bit of a dodgy word for me. I look at it with caution. It can be a bit like walking into quicksand; it can get you in to all kinds of trouble.”

Kind Moments Nice Trouble Dangerous Walking All Kinds Dislike Narcissism Looking Good Caution Nice Day Quicksand

Author:Don McCullin

“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.”

Ifs Inspirational Feels Looks Feelings Photography Photographer Photograph Photography By Photographers Inspirational Photography

Author:Don McCullin

“I am sometimes accused by my peers of printing my pictures too dark. All I can say is that it goes with the mood of melancholy that is induced by witnessing at close quarters such intractable situations of conflict and joylessness.”

I Can Sometimes Dark Situation Conflict Mood Melancholy Quarters Peers Accused Printing

Author:Don McCullin

“The real truth of life is on the streets. Photograph the daily lives of people, and how they exist, and how they fight for space and time and pleasure.”

People Real Life Is Fighting Space Pleasure Streets Photograph Daily Life Truth Of Life Time And Space Real Truth

Author:Don McCullin

“Photography is the truth if it’s being handled by a truthful person.”

Ifs Persons Photography Truthful

Author:Don McCullin

“I only use a camera like I use a toothbrush. It does the job.”

Doe Use Jobs Photography Cameras Toothbrushes Photojournalism Photojournalists

Author:Don McCullin

“There's always a threat surrounding the things you love”

Threat Things You Love

Author:Don McCullin

“I met an Englishwoman in Africa. She said she became a doctor because she saw one of my pictures. That’s all I want – just one doctor in Africa.”

Want Said Saws Mets Doctors Just One

Book:Shaped by War

Source: Shaped by War

“I have been manipulated, and I have in turn manipulated others, by recording their response to suffering and misery. So there is guilt in every direction: guilt because I don't practice religion, guilt because I was able to walk away, while this man was dying of starvation or being murdered by another man with a gun. And I am tired of guilt, tired of saying to myself: “I didn't kill that man on that photograph, I didn't starve that child. That's why I want to photograph landscapes and flowers. I am sentencing myself to peace.”

Men Want Children Has Beens Able Suffering Turns Walks Practice Dying Flower Gun Tired Guilt Misery Response Photograph Landscape Another Man Starvation

Author:Don McCullin

“Seeing, looking at what others cannot bear to see is what my life is all about.”

Life Is Seeing Bears

Book:Unreasonable Behaviour: An Autobiography

Source: Unreasonable Behaviour: An Autobiography

About the Author

Born: October 9, 1935
Known for: Photojournalist
Quotes: 21

Books & Sources

Shaped by WarRelated source material

Unreasonable Behaviour: An AutobiographyRelated source material

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