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.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the emotional impact of dark imagery in photography, suggesting it conveys a deeper truth about difficult experiences.
Don McCullin's quote highlights the tension between artistic expression and audience perception. He explains that his choice to print darker photographs is not merely an aesthetic preference but a deliberate reflection of the somber emotions inspired by his encounters with the harsh realities of conflict. This choice serves as a means to convey the gravity of the situations he captures, emphasizing that sometimes, art must evoke discomfort to communicate the complexities of human experience.
In practice
During a gallery opening for a series of photographs depicting war zones.
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.
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.
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 love the art of acting, so I don't care if I'm in a movie with 10 people, two people, or by myself. I just really enjoy it.
First you study photography, then you practice photography, then you serve photography, and finally one becomes photography.
To be honest, when I was writing these stories a million years ago, I never thought about movies at all one way or another. It would have seemed almost miraculous for these things to be movies someday. To me, they were just comic books that I hoped would sell so I could keep my job.
Painting picture by picture, I followed the impressions my eye took in at heightened moments. I painted only memories, adding nothing, no details that I did not see. Hence the simplicity of the paintings, their emptiness.
Exuberance is better than taste.
It’s such a fun job, and it can be silly and light and about making people laugh. I think I was doing it a disservice by thinking it’s not something ultimately important. I always was saying, ‘I’m not saving lives; I’m not a brain surgeon.’ And that’s true—I’m not saving anyone from any life-threatening illnesses. But I get to tell stories, and that’s a pretty important task.
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