Don McCullin film preview

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http://events.ucl.ac.uk/event/event:imh-ha54kq4c-v5lhdn/open-city-docs-special-screening-mccullin?dm_i=UAA,12LDL,4QX673,3B0MT,1

At University College London, Bloomsbury in London this Friday 7th Dec at 19.00 £5 entry

Open City Docs will be hosting a special BAFTA preview of McCullin, with participation of Jacqui Morris and David Morris.

Open City Docs Fest 2012 Closing Gala film, McCullin is the new documentary on the life and work of the celebrated war photographer Don McCullin. Widely recognised as one of the world’s greatest war photographers, McCullin covered virtually every major conflict and humanitarian disaster of the late 20th Century. From the Vietnam War to The Troubles in Northern Ireland, his iconic images have come to shape our understanding of modern conflict and its consequences. Now, for the first time, he speaks candidly about his 30-year career on the frontline.

David
 
just watched this very interesting and some stunning photography too
 
Watched this at the weekend. A very powerful and moving documentary. Not only is he a great photographer but someone of great integrity and compassion.

Well worth seeing.
 
A Heads up BBC1 Tuesday
tomorrow · Tue, Jul 2 · 22:35-00:10 · (95min) BBC1 North

McCullin

Alan Yentob introduces a profile of British photojournalist Don McCullin, told through a series of honest and often graphic interviews.
He recalls a life lived in the theatre of war, from his first assignment with the violent teenage gangs on his home turf of Finsbury Park
to capturing international conflicts of the past 50 years. During that time, his photography brought home the horrors of modern warfare from Cyprus,
the Congo, Biafra and most famously, Vietnam. The film lays bare McCullin's disgust for the destruction of human life mixed with the adrenaline
rush of a life spent under enemy fire
 
I've seen this film - it left me reeling.
It's not a 'nice' film and it's not going to make you feel good about yourself.
But I 100% recommend going to see it - even if you think it's going to be upsetting.
This is worth watching.
 
Would not have known that was on tonight - thanks - look forward to it.
 
Just spotted this is also BBC1 Scotland tonight too
 
Just finished, wonderful and thought provoking viewing. If you missed it I urge you to watch it on iPlayer.
 
WOW!

This is a must see, not just for the photographs which vary from harrowing to hopeful, but for the passion he had for the image. Amazing that the same tragedies are still occurring now as they did then. We have learnt very little over the years!

I really got the impression that he was carrying the weight of every image on his shoulders. He seems quite a haunted soul, unsurprising really given what he has experienced.

Awesome documentary.
 
Have to agree. Totally awesome.

It wasn't just the actual McCullin photographs that were harrowing. Some of the video was too. Bodies run over by aircraft, children struggling to climb steps and McCullins description of that hospital ward in Beirut.

Where has the human race gone wrong?
 
Just incredible, on so many levels.

David
 
Hi, This was Awesome viewing. If you didn't catch it then high tail it on to iPlayer etc to catch up. You won't regret it.
 
I have seen his images in real life. In vietnam and cambodia. Seeing them in the place from where they were taken was quite a sobering experience.

Does anyone know, in the last few frames, the camera he was using. It seemed to have additional bits on it. It was a battered, well used bit of kit. I saw he had a light meter and seemed to just take areading from where he was standing. Even his landscape images have so much depth to them.....

Going to watch it again when i get time..
 
recorded it and hope to watch it tonight. The programme is a series of 6 so it will be interesting to see what the other line ups are
 
gpc1 said:
I have seen his images in real life. In vietnam and cambodia. Seeing them in the place from where they were taken was quite a sobering experience.

Does anyone know, in the last few frames, the camera he was using. It seemed to have additional bits on it. It was a battered, well used bit of kit. I saw he had a light meter and seemed to just take areading from where he was standing. Even his landscape images have so much depth to them.....

Going to watch it again when i get time..
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Haven't got to watching it yet,but I think the camera was Nikon F2 with a metreing head.
Don McClllin said he alway used to meter,he wasn't going to die for an badly exposed shot.

http://www.mir.SPAM/rb/photography/companies/nikon/htmls/models/images/F2photomicBig.jpg link here :)
 
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00U5TM-160169684.jpg


One of these, with a few extra bits attached, a Mamiya Press Super???

David
 
Another interesting observation is that how Murdoch suppressed some unpalatable truths, preferring lifestyle, so now we have his Sky dominating TV providing opium for the masses. I will never subscribe to Sky, I'd rather not have any TV than support Murdoch.
 
More like a business decision pushed through by Andrew Neil to bring in more advertising revenue. It's easy to criticise Murdoch, but the Sunday Times was bleeding cash at the time...at least it still exists. It may be a shadow of its former self, but it still stands up as a campaigning paper and the photojournalism is still there in the Magazine.

Remember Marie Colvin died in the line of duty for the ST last year and photographer Paul Conroy was very badly injured.
 
Very powerful. It does go to show that having all the fancy gear we all want and claim we need now, is really just window dressing. His photo's were great because they told a story. Not because they were overly edited and super high definition. That said, I would love to take photo's like him, but would never want to do his job. It's hard enough for mates of mine who have came back from Iraq and Afghan after a hard tour, but to have to observe things which are far more terrible than they have seen and just record it would be horrific.
 
It was a compelling documentary, with some awful subject matter, both in his stunning pictures and the accompanying video. Showing humanity at it's worse. :shake: And sadly not just in a few situations, but all the time. :shake: Made me glad he shot most of it in B&W.

I hope he is not as haunted by all he has seen as he looked, though it would be impossible not to have been to some degree.
 
I watched this last night and saw it again on iPlayer tonight, it absolutely tore me apart both times. I think we sometimes get way too wrapped up in gear, processing, etc, and forget just how powerful that raw photo we create when we press that shutter release button can be. McCullin's work is nothing short of remarkable, his images run over you like a freight train of dreadful reality and yet do so in an outstandingly dignified, sensitive, respectful and human way. There aren't many people I'd love to just spend 5 minutes talking with, but he's very definitely one of them.
 
PMN said:
I watched this last night and saw it again on iPlayer tonight, it absolutely tore me apart both times. I think we sometimes get way too wrapped up in gear, processing, etc, and forget just how powerful that raw photo we create when we press that shutter release button can be. McCullin's work is nothing short of remarkable, his images run over you like a freight train of dreadful reality and yet do so in an outstandingly dignified, sensitive, respectful and human way. There aren't many people I'd love to just spend 5 minutes talking with, but he's very definitely one of them.
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Don't get me wrong i love his work,but he used some of the best gear available at the time and was very merciless over his processing spending many hours sometimes over one print,as i have already said he alway used to use an meter,saying he didn't want to get killed over an badly exposed shot.

This in know way take away from the great work he has turn out,but it is a great myth out there that great photographer don't think about their gear or even talking about it.

:)
 
McCullin has been a hero of mine for years, my dad always got the Sunday Times and every week I grabbed the colour supplement just to look at his work. His images of the UK are so telling about life in the sixties. His landscape work is never light or frivolous.

Without the likes of McCullin informing the world about the atrocities of war, the human suffering, we are left with a sanitised view of conflict. Was disappointed he never went to the Falklands with us.
 
simonblue said:
Don't get me wrong i love his work,but he used some of the best gear available at the time and was very merciless over his processing spending many hours sometimes over one print,as i have already said he alway used to use an meter,saying he didn't want to get killed over an badly exposed shot.

This in know way take away from the great work he has turn out,but it is a great myth out there that great photographer don't think about their gear or even talking about it.

:)
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True but he was merciless for a reason and was very focussed on the end result rather than getting sidetracked by latest toys, etc. Throughout the entire hour and a half, processing and gear aren't mentioned whatsoever beyond a simple "Nikon camera" so I guess what I meant to say was while some people concern themselves with what we need to take the photo and other stuff he was more concerned about the final image and whether it said what he wanted to say. :)
 
PMN said:
True but he was merciless for a reason and was very focussed on the end result rather than getting sidetracked by latest toys, etc. Throughout the entire hour and a half, processing and gear aren't mentioned whatsoever beyond a simple "Nikon camera" so I guess what I meant to say was while some people concern themselves with what we need to take the photo and other stuff he was more concerned about the final image and whether it said what he wanted to say. :)
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The show was aimed at the general public. And it was bloody good. If they had started talking about equipment and processing 90% of viewers would have switched off. I liked that it talked about the stories rather than the making of the pictures. But have no doubt, that was an editorial decision. They would have taken away from his work if they had tried to talk about composition and technicalities, I didn't care all I wanted to know about was what he was thinking about at the time, and what he thinks about now.
 
supersammy said:
The show was aimed at the general public. And it was bloody good. If they had started talking about equipment and processing 90% of viewers would have switched off. I liked that it talked about the stories rather than the making of the pictures. But have no doubt, that was an editorial decision. They would have taken away from his work if they had tried to talk about composition and technicalities, I didn't care all I wanted to know about was what he was thinking about at the time, and what he thinks about now.
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He doesn't strike me as the kind of photographer to sit and talk about gear for hours whether it was an editorial decision or not - that's part of my point. He seems more about the meaning of it all than other stuff.
 
PMN said:
He doesn't strike me as the kind of photographer to sit and talk about gear for hours whether it was an editorial decision or not - that's part of my point. He seems more about the meaning of it all than other stuff.
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But that doesn't mean he is not interested in gear and doesn't mean he doesn't spend hours processing photos. Photos need gear and they need processing.

Not sure what point you are really trying to prove. It was a documentary about him and his situations/photographs, personal feelings etc,. not a documentary on the technicalities of his photographs but no doubt that could have been done and would have been a very different documentary with him talking about his cameras, darkroom stuff etc,.
 
ernesto said:
Not sure what point you are really trying to prove.
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Settle down, Ernesto. I'm not trying to prove anything, I'm simply saying it's nice to hear a photographer talk more about the meaning behind his images than gear. It really is that simple. Had I known such a simple point was going to be taken so out of context I'd have kept my damned fingers off the keyboard.

Seems you can't even show appreciation for someone's work without someone else having a go at you. :bang:
 
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I agree, Paul

It wasnt about the equipment, it was about the thought processes and emotion.

I dare say he talks about gear, i dare say he (massive asumption) isnt too interested in the latest gadgets. I may be wrong but thats how the documentary came across, about the emotion and humanity (or lack of).

The documentary was awesome, the images incredible, the man....inspirational!
 
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