7 October 2011 to 15 April 2012
City of London SE1 6HZ
Admission: Adults £7, Concessions £6
‘I was aware of the fact that my injuries were not serious, they were painful, but I knew I wasn’t going to die, so I was suffering great shock and great relief, but at the same time seeing my own blood was a lesson for me, because how can you photograph other peoples pain when you don’t know the value of pain’
Don McCullin was born 9th October, 1935 in Finsbury Park, London, he is known internationally as an exceptional British photojournalist, recognized for his war photography and images of urban conflict. In 1959 his career began, where he has been able to specialise in examining society, and his photographs have depicted the unemployed and the impoverished. Don McCullin is one of the most important photographers of our generation. McCullin’s uncompromising and candid black and white photographs have shaped our awareness and understanding of modern conflict and its consequences, for more than 50 years.
‘Shaped by War’ presents the largest collection of Don McCullin’s work ever seen on public display, which has brought together a unique collaboration between Don McCullin and the Imperial War Museum, displaying McCullin’s iconic photographs combined with rarely seen work and significant objects such as this Nikon F camera which stopped a Khmer Rouge bullet hitting his head in Cambodia in 1970!
The display of his work will be accompanied by a newly commissioned film interview, magazine spreads and personal memorabilia. These tell the astonishing story of his life and work, including his most famous assignments in Berlin, Vietnam, Cambodia, Biafra, Bangladesh and the Middle East. Key periods in McCullin’s life including his early experiences of evacuation and the Blitz, his commissions from Berlin in 1961 and Cyprus in 1964 and his most famous work for the Sunday Times are shown alongside more recent projects with Christian Aid and, in the last few years, his photographs of still life and English landscapes at his home in Somerset. To accompany the exhibition, Jonathan Cape, in association with Imperial War Museum has produced a new book entitled: Shaped by War traces McCullin’s career through his photographs (image of the book below).
Also on the 18th of October there will be an opportunity to see McCullin in the flesh at an artist talk, ‘Don McCullin in conversation with Kate Adie’, which starts at 7pm. With this talk you will be able to have a private view of the incredible and moving exhibition. To buy tickets for the exhibition and talk, click Here.
