I know Don McCullin as a war photographer and have seen his photographs of homeless people in many photographic books. He also has alot of books published showcasing purely his own work.
When looking round the exhebition at the Tate even though its in one room I feel like it was split into three genres, War, Homeless portraits and Landscape.
Don McCullin is most known for his photographs documenting war and international conflicts. In the exhibition the photos on show were taken from the series in which McCullin was in Berlin, Germany 1961, he photographs a city which hasn't fully recovered from the second world war and is still occupied by a military force. The photos portray a city at unease and put across a tension which must have been felt all over the city at the time.
This image is the first image that springs to mind when Don McCullin is mentioned, I first saw it when I was at school studying GCSE photography and looked through his book " Don McCullin - In England ". This photo was taken as part of his commentary on poverty in England. The Portraits of homeless people in the exhibition are my favourite I think they stand out as this is something you can see in any city and in any country, you choose to ignore homeless people or turn away from them. Looking at these photos you are confronted with these people that struggle through life and almost forced into starring straight into their eyes and feel sympathy for them.
Don McCullin is a favourite photographer of mine, but personally I don't really like his landscapes, I feel like they are too high contrast and made to look more dramatic than the scene really is. Maybe its to put across a message, but I feel like his other work is a lot more interesting and speaks more to me.
'Photography isn’t looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures.' - Don McCullin
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