In my photography, I always lean towards the underprivileged because that's where I came from. When I went to the wars, I attempted to go and stand by those who were being trodden on. By that, I mean people like the Palestinians. When I go to India, I see really the poorest people, and I tend to be drawn to them.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the author's empathy for underprivileged communities, driven by personal experience.
In this quote, Don McCullin expresses his commitment to documenting the experiences of the underprivileged, drawing from his own background. He emphasizes the importance of standing in solidarity with marginalized groups, such as Palestinians and the poor in India, highlighting a deep connection to their struggles through his photography. McCullin’s work serves not only as an artistic endeavor but also as a means of advocacy for those whose stories are often overlooked or ignored.
In practice
In a speech at an art gallery showcasing social justice photography, I might use this quote to emphasize the importance of representing marginalized voices.
I've spent most of my life embracing violence in wars and revolutions. Even a famine is a form of violence. Because I photograph people in peril, people in pain, people being executed in front of me, I find it very difficult to get my head around the art narrative of photography.
I started out on photography accidentally. A policeman came to a stop at the end of my street, and a guy knifed him at the end of my street. That's how I became a photographer. I photographed the gangs that I went to school with.
I am sometimes accused by my peers of printing my pictures too dark. All I can say is that it goes with the mood of melancholy that is induced by witnessing at close quarters such intractable situations of conflict and joylessness.
Photography is the truth if it’s being handled by a truthful person.
When I take a black-and-white portrait, it's not particularly meant to please you. It's meant to talk to you; it's meant to shame you. It's meant to scream out at you, and it has a message.
I'm from England, and like every other great empire who stole bits of the world, there is a price to pay. And I was born in 1935. So, since I've been conscious of the world, I've either been in, or been on the periphery of, a war zone.
I try to have each book be an antidote to the one before.
The artist has a special task and duty... reminding people of their humanity and the promise of their creativity.
The substance of fictional architecture is not bricks and mortar but evanescent consciousness.
Unfortunately, the boards of art institutions tend to be populated with well-meaning supporters of the arts who often lack any business background or appetite for imposing appropriate discipline.
Many foreigners have asked me how we made the Danish style. And I've answered that it...was rather a continuous process of purification, and for me of simplification, to cut down to the simplest possible elements of four legs, a seat and combined top rail and arm rest.
A poet is a professional maker of verbal objects.
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