Shaped By War-photographs by Don McCullin at IWM

Out of the 4 exhibitions we visited on our trip to Manchester, the one that had the most impact on me was Don McCullin's exhibition at the Imperial War Museum. At the time, i thought i would find this one the least interesting as documentary/war photography is not of any particular interest to me-i appreciate it, but its not one of my favourite genres. But i was blown away by this exhibition, left speechless and humbled, and incredibly touched.






The depth of human suffering that McCullin portrays is incredible, the first photograph above reduced me to tears when i saw it, and even writing about it now gives me a lump in my throat (I'm far to empathic, especially when it involves children) i cant help but think about the desperate situation that mother is in, about the pointless suckling of her baby, it absolutely breaks my heart. The same applies to the photograph of the starving albino child. i know that it is hard being a child in a famine but i also know that albino children are shunned, castigated and mistreated and i cant help but think about this poor child's plight. the visual style that McCullin uses is very direct, completely unapologetic, it says to me 'this is the situation, you can do nothing but learn from it' (whether people do learn from these things in any great capacity is something i am skeptical about).

On a technical level, i found the photograph of the shell shocked soldier the most interesting-to read all McCullins notes on how he processed the image, right down to the dodging and burning, made me realise how much post production goes into a genre i previously thought was the purest. McCullin still edits his photos, but at the end of the day, his photos still show the truth, the harsh facts of war and the human plight behind them.

i went away from this exhibition with a completely changed opinion of war photography, i don't know how McCullins work will impact my own, as i don't practise documentary photography on the whole (apart from weddings but thats a completely different style) but he most certainly influenced me emotionally and academically as it has opened my eyes to that style of photography. He doesn't just document the soldiers, the war, he documents the human face behind it all and his popularity undoubtedly opened the eyes of many many people to the suffering of others in all parts of the world. I never thought for a second that he would impact mine just as much, many years later.