[Leica] Book Reccomendation / Don McCullin

[m037iu00@cwcom.net]

The recent book reccomendation meant that this seemed apposite, I just
came back from this last night, it's really an article for the (LPP
News)  magazine.

An Evening Out – With Don McCullin.

Waterstones, the book sellers, were invited to host an evening lecture
by Jonathan Cape, the publishers of Don McCullin’s latest book, ‘India.
This I got to hear about during my visit to the Viewpoint Gallery in
Salford described elsewhere in LPP News.
I suppose that promoting one’s book with a tour these days is quite
normal and indeed, by the time Don reached Manchester, he had already
two venues under his belt including Bradford, home of the National
Museum of Photography. Sadly the news was not good as I made my way,
early, to the venue in order to find the best seat. The two previous
nights had been disappointing for Don in terms of venue illumination,
too much to be precise, and that meant that he was digging his heels in
over tonight’s presentation at St Anne’s church which possesses fine
large windows, certainly not the sort of place you’d want to lay on a
slide show! And so we were asked to walk a further fifty yards to the
new Unitarian church building which houses a meeting hall on the ground
floor. Whether there was insufficient room inside or whether the church
forbids alcohol on the premises I’m unsure but we were served with
complimentary wine on the pavement … in glasses.

On offer, both before and after the talk was the book at a reduced price
through use of the evening’s ticket as a book voucher, generously the
use of a second ticket was also possible allowing 10, rather than merely
5, pounds of the full price of £30 – quite a deal!
The event was certainly packed, especially as the site was smaller than
St Anne’s and with the weather being warm enough for me to wear my
shorts, I felt for those who were wrapped up in what became close to a
sweat room!
McCullin was introduced and promptly led into a talk over the showing of
a tray of slides all of which lasted some 45 minutes and were
exclusively shots from his book. The pictures showed all the hallmarks
of his compassion, sensitivity and empathy with suffering.

McCullin grew up in poverty in war torn London, fate seemed to compound
his poor start in life when during evacuations he found himself
separated from his sister who went to a privileged house and was
eventually adopted. For the young Don, he was taken in by a farmer who
had him sleep on a bare floor and gave him a bath only 17 weeks later
when he returned home. From a desperate childhood, which was traumatised
by his father’s death at the age of 12, Don only narrowly missed
becoming part of the young prison population along with his fellow
street gang. Ironically it was pictures that he took of these friends
that lead to his first break in photography when they became involved in
a murder incident in London’s East End. ‘The Observer’ bought the
pictures and the commissions began from there.
Early on Don realised that the genre calling him was that of conflict,
he took himself to Berlin shortly before the wall was built and
thereafter made his greatest impact recording the Cypriot troubles of
1964. For those pictures he received the World Press Award, which led to
globetrotting and all the wars since then, Israel, Lebanon, Uganda,
Kenya, El Salvador, Vietnam and Cambodia all fell prey to Don’s gaze.
Though many of his friends are no longer with us, Don came to feel at
times that he led an almost charmed life, escaping death many times with
something of a sixth sense and intuition aided once by the thickness of
a Nikon F camera which took a bullet instead of his chest. Don has a
Leica but references in his books to cameras have so far revealed only
Rolleicords, Spotmatics, and the Nikon F.
It is Don’s greatest gift that he is always able to see the side of the
underdog, he is less concerned with the perceived right and wrong of a
situation, more with the need to show the suffering caused and call for
assistance, aid and a solution to the problems caused.
In this latest volume, ‘India’, the guns are not visible, the war
machinery has disappeared but the suffering is still apparent, India
reeks of poverty and the problems still seething from Partition.
Documenting the plight of refugees, the horror of cholera and the
embarrassment of leprosy he shows us a country which fascinates him
greatly. He writes that if the next thousand years were given over to
photographing there he would still not have exhausted all the
possibilities.
The book itself is 131 pages of predominately black and white pictures,
bizarrely, considering the acknowledged colour of the sub-continent
there are only 4 colour plates, two at the front and two at the very
rear. However the ability of the story telling is undiminished through
this irony and indeed the lustrous tones of the printing do full justice
to Don’s rich picture quality.
But the book is not all ‘doom and gloom’, there are pictures from Don’s
trips to the majestic elephant fairs and festivals at the holy River
Ganges too, many portraits (for McCullin is very much a ‘people person’)
are sprinkled throughout the book. The Indians managing to provide an
intense dignity examining the camera with, seemingly, as much
fascination as Don has for them.

In looking at this book alongside his previous work, one can sense a
feeling of coming to terms with his life, perhaps the start of a
rounding off of his life’s torment. Having titled his retrospective
monograph, ‘Sleeping With Ghosts’ (Aperture) we can (try to) appreciate
the horrors that Don has lived with. When Don’s application to picture
the Falkland’s Conflict met with rejection from the Ministry of Defence
(in favour of less experienced correspondents) he recognised the time
had come to move on from the War arena. Since then he has struggled to
find some sense of validity in a photographic world which sees him as a
‘war photographer’, here is a book which showcases his innate skills as
a human portraitist empathising with the struggling and dispossessed of
the world. He is at one with these under privileged people and returns
to India frequently.
I asked him, during the few ‘open-question’ minutes at the end of the
lecture, whether he felt he was in any way resolved within himself. He
had spoken of God, collecting Buddhas and acknowledged the West had lost
sight of faith in a way that the Indians hadn’t. His reply echoed his
autobiography, ‘Unreasonable Behaviour’ (Vintage) where he wrote he had
disowned God after his father’s death. And yet he went on to reveal that
in his darkest moments He was also the person he prayed to and that had
‘seemed to work’, perhaps his ghosts are being exorcised.
It certainly seems like a calmer but no less considerate McCullin who
has presented this latest volume, passionate assuredly but bitter no
longer.

As the evening concluded those who were interested could have Don sign
not only his latest book but also any others they might have possessed
and brought along. In all, he signed four for me and this was not
uncommon for others either. A dedication in person and a date ensured
the task took much longer than it need have done, in essence a personal
validation of the concern he holds for others. This is a photographer
whose heart is in the right place.

Jem Kime