Exam Project - Trip To Imperial War Museum - Don McCullin

This week we had a trip to the imperial war museum to visit an exhibition produced by Don McCullin. Don McCullin happens to relate to my first researched photography and the topic of war which I am interested in. Don McCullin career first started after a death of a police men in his local area of Finsbury Park, the third photo shown, called '' the guvnors '' was seen by someone from the times and he was then given a 2 day week of there. He used 3 nikon F cameras, 2 light meters and 30 rolls of black and white 35mm film. He was then sent to the civil war  in Cyprus in 1964 which he came back to win many awards including the World Press Award.  June 5th 1970 , McCullin was shot in the face and was saved by his camera and was also wounded in his leg, he recovered. Since then, he has gone back out to various wars to document the history and make people aware of what's happening. From 2000-2004, he also be involved with Christian Aid trying to educate people of Aids and to help those in need.

Some quotes from Don McCullin:
'' Occasionally, I use colour - I can use it quite well if it comes to it. But i thought that black and white images in war were much more powerful''

'' I suspect i was suffering a kind of mental breakdown in a way.... I was actually basically nothing less than a war junkie'' - 2009

'' I will never believe my photography hasn't still got something to teach me'' - 2009

In 2010, he published four new books for his photography, including one being called ''Shaped by war'' that is connected with this specific exhibition.

I enjoyed going to this exhibition as we got to look as someone work visually and also it's a different way of collecting research than just to find information off the internet. We could watch video's of him talking of his experiences, looking at his old camera's, passports etc. i found it interesting that we could look at all this first hand. It was also more appealing to me as i was interested in war photographers before. It has inspired me to carry on with my idea of emotive photograph's but also to relate it to the exam brief '' Encounters, Meeting and Experiences''.