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daveparry67's review against another edition
4.0
I was blown away by the Don McCullin exhibition at the Tate Britain & so I’m devouring his autobiography... I also splashed out on the impressive book of pictures that accompanies the exhibition; beautifully shot, harrowing, very occasionally amusing pictures from a lifetime of photo journalism.
This is a relentless story of harrowing assignments & a rising conviction of the horror & futility of war, interspersed with occasional, amusing anecdotes drawing out the contrast between the brutality of his work and so-called civilised western society... Don McCullin comes across as fascinated & hooked by war, instinctively creative & human, & compassionate, desperate not to intrude or dehumanise...
How did Don McCullin survive? Has he ever had PTSD? Wounded in an explosion that killed the man next to him, caught in the crossfire more than once, imprisoned in a jail where others were being clubbed to death with a sledgehammer, being close by when other journalists (& friends) were killed by missiles or bullets & frequently only narrowly escaping with his life, he’s had a charmed, horrifying life, despite his best efforts!
I found it ironic that I was reading about Don McCullin’s time in 1971 in the Bogside area of Derry in Northern Ireland, on Good Friday 2019, the day after a resurgence of serious unrest in Derry resulted in the death of a journalist, doing exactly what McCullin was doing 38 years ago…
McCullin comes across missionaries more than once & it’s shocking to hear how deceitful, obstructive, knowingly self-serving & inhuman they are; destroying whole communities, tribes & ways of life in the guise of civilising salvation; no christianity I recognise here, just wilful destruction for selfish gain, less missionary, more mercenary. The contrast with McCullin’s caution, sensitivity, compassion & insistence on preserving dignity & autonomy when taking people’s pictures is stark.
To leave Vietnam for the last time, in 1975, having been unable to get into the country because his name was on a blacklist, McCullin, the brutalised war photographer, joins a flight evacuating orphans & looks after 2 children, cradling one in his arms, the whole way back.
As the book goes on McCullin often talks of having to not let his imagination run away with him (although when he does there’s probably a risk of that he’s facing real dangers just as bad as his imagination can conjure up) & of wrestling with bad thoughts… he yearns for home when he’s away in the thick of the action but can’t settle when he returns…
Throughout, he’s evaluating & re-evaluating his life & what it means; he thought the book might lay his demons to rest but it just made him feel awful about the breakup of his marriage… everything fell apart, his health, his marriage & his work dried up with the changes to newspapers’ priorities in the eighties. The updated preface reveals things had improved in the years since the original publication but you can’t help but wonder that no more permanent damage was done following a life of such brutal horror & ever-present risk.
Brutalised by violence, immunised against danger, McCullin never seems to lose his compassion. That is the story of this book, this man. It gives me hope
This is a relentless story of harrowing assignments & a rising conviction of the horror & futility of war, interspersed with occasional, amusing anecdotes drawing out the contrast between the brutality of his work and so-called civilised western society... Don McCullin comes across as fascinated & hooked by war, instinctively creative & human, & compassionate, desperate not to intrude or dehumanise...
How did Don McCullin survive? Has he ever had PTSD? Wounded in an explosion that killed the man next to him, caught in the crossfire more than once, imprisoned in a jail where others were being clubbed to death with a sledgehammer, being close by when other journalists (& friends) were killed by missiles or bullets & frequently only narrowly escaping with his life, he’s had a charmed, horrifying life, despite his best efforts!
I found it ironic that I was reading about Don McCullin’s time in 1971 in the Bogside area of Derry in Northern Ireland, on Good Friday 2019, the day after a resurgence of serious unrest in Derry resulted in the death of a journalist, doing exactly what McCullin was doing 38 years ago…
McCullin comes across missionaries more than once & it’s shocking to hear how deceitful, obstructive, knowingly self-serving & inhuman they are; destroying whole communities, tribes & ways of life in the guise of civilising salvation; no christianity I recognise here, just wilful destruction for selfish gain, less missionary, more mercenary. The contrast with McCullin’s caution, sensitivity, compassion & insistence on preserving dignity & autonomy when taking people’s pictures is stark.
To leave Vietnam for the last time, in 1975, having been unable to get into the country because his name was on a blacklist, McCullin, the brutalised war photographer, joins a flight evacuating orphans & looks after 2 children, cradling one in his arms, the whole way back.
As the book goes on McCullin often talks of having to not let his imagination run away with him (although when he does there’s probably a risk of that he’s facing real dangers just as bad as his imagination can conjure up) & of wrestling with bad thoughts… he yearns for home when he’s away in the thick of the action but can’t settle when he returns…
Throughout, he’s evaluating & re-evaluating his life & what it means; he thought the book might lay his demons to rest but it just made him feel awful about the breakup of his marriage… everything fell apart, his health, his marriage & his work dried up with the changes to newspapers’ priorities in the eighties. The updated preface reveals things had improved in the years since the original publication but you can’t help but wonder that no more permanent damage was done following a life of such brutal horror & ever-present risk.
Brutalised by violence, immunised against danger, McCullin never seems to lose his compassion. That is the story of this book, this man. It gives me hope
hanne842's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
5.0
It feels like a movie. It sucks you in. And then you realise that’s a true story.
naonuomi's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
mindracer's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
3.5
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