What an amazing man to be doing what he does at this age.
Don McCullin tells what it’s like being an 80-year-old war photographer in Syria
Friedrichstrasse, Berlin, 1961 (Photo: Don McCullin)
Rob Hastings14:53Friday May 20th 2016
The UK’s most famous war photographer has returned to a conflict zone – this time to Palmyra in Syria
A Syrian battlefield, you may well think, is not the place for an 80-year-old grandfather and stroke survivor with a quadruple heart bypass.
But if anyone dares tell Don McCullin this – and some colleagues have – the finest war photographer Britain has produced simply brushes them aside. Explaining why he visited Palmyra just last week, he says: “I’m inhabited by creative excitement. I mustn’t think about giving up, because if I do I should die the next day.”
These are tough words, coming from a man who has seen death up close so many times. And yet he is nothing like the stereotypical image I had of a veteran in war photography. I feared a fierce glare, a firm handshake and a bristling manner that gives off the message: you’ll never comprehend the horrors I’ve seen.
To my relief, the McCullin I meet gives my hand a gentle clasp on saying hello, rather than ripping my arm off. He begins talking openly and thoughtfully, behind soft blue eyes. He smiles. Only his eyebrows bristle. Is this the same man who confessed to being a “war junkie” in documenting conflicts with haunting images in Vietnam, Cyprus and west Africa decades ago?
Admittedly, we are chatting in the cafe of Somerset House – where the Photo London fair is displaying a select exhibition of McCullin’s best work – rather than meeting on a deadly frontline, where I’ve no doubt he’s as hard as anything. And yes, he is now at an age that could mellow perhaps even the hardest souls, especially for a man in his third marriage and with five children aged 13 to 53, besides the grandchildren
Continue reading at:
Don McCullin tells what it's like being an 80-year-old war photographer in Syria - The i newspaper online iNews
Don McCullin tells what it’s like being an 80-year-old war photographer in Syria
Friedrichstrasse, Berlin, 1961 (Photo: Don McCullin)
Rob Hastings14:53Friday May 20th 2016The UK’s most famous war photographer has returned to a conflict zone – this time to Palmyra in Syria
A Syrian battlefield, you may well think, is not the place for an 80-year-old grandfather and stroke survivor with a quadruple heart bypass.
But if anyone dares tell Don McCullin this – and some colleagues have – the finest war photographer Britain has produced simply brushes them aside. Explaining why he visited Palmyra just last week, he says: “I’m inhabited by creative excitement. I mustn’t think about giving up, because if I do I should die the next day.”
These are tough words, coming from a man who has seen death up close so many times. And yet he is nothing like the stereotypical image I had of a veteran in war photography. I feared a fierce glare, a firm handshake and a bristling manner that gives off the message: you’ll never comprehend the horrors I’ve seen.
To my relief, the McCullin I meet gives my hand a gentle clasp on saying hello, rather than ripping my arm off. He begins talking openly and thoughtfully, behind soft blue eyes. He smiles. Only his eyebrows bristle. Is this the same man who confessed to being a “war junkie” in documenting conflicts with haunting images in Vietnam, Cyprus and west Africa decades ago?
Admittedly, we are chatting in the cafe of Somerset House – where the Photo London fair is displaying a select exhibition of McCullin’s best work – rather than meeting on a deadly frontline, where I’ve no doubt he’s as hard as anything. And yes, he is now at an age that could mellow perhaps even the hardest souls, especially for a man in his third marriage and with five children aged 13 to 53, besides the grandchildren
Continue reading at:
Don McCullin tells what it's like being an 80-year-old war photographer in Syria - The i newspaper online iNews
