Don McCullin - Looking for England (BBC4 4 Feb 21:00)

FishyFish

FishyFish

Messages
7,507
Name
Nige
Edit My Images
No
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002dv0

Travelogue that follows photographer Don McCullin, now 83, documenting his country from inner cities to seaside towns, on a journey in search of his own nation. Sixty years after starting out as a photographer, McCullin returns to his old haunts in the East End of London, Bradford, Consett, Eastbourne and Scarborough. Along the way he encounters an array of English characters at the Glyndebourne Festival and Goodwood Revival and photographs a hunt and a group of saboteurs aiming to disrupt them. McCullin’s journey is punctuated by scenes in his darkroom, a place he is allowing cameras into for the first time.
Click to expand...

Should be interesting.
 
Thanks, set to record :)
 
Thanks Fishyfish sounds interesting !
 
Last edited:
Thanks for sharing, set to record.
 
WOW ! The Guy from the fish market recognizing him as the man that took his photo whilst he was playing foot ball as a child was amazing , I stood there last year on my first visit to Scarborough, my wife moaning about me taking photos ! A really interesting program.
 
A really interesting programme. He seemed such a nice guy - no sign of arrogance at all, chatting to people on the street, and boy can he still take a great photograph!
I always knew him as a "war photographer" but it seemed as if the genre was a bit of tangent for him. He started out as a documentary photographer and he's back doing documentary again.

I agree that the "look" he achieves from his negs and files is tremendous.
 
jerry12953 said:
I can relate to that. I would love to get to the Tate exhibition.
Click to expand...
I managed to visit one he had at the Barbican maybe 20 odd years ago, and it was well worth it. When you stand and stare into the eyes of the shell-shocked marine it is really powerful.
 
Quite amazed he was carrying\using the RB without a strap. If I met him would mention this and ask "have you ever dropped a camera".
 
excalibur2 said:
Quite amazed he was carrying\using the RB without a strap. If I met him would mention this and ask "have you ever dropped a camera".
Click to expand...

Who knows what he would have done if there wasn't a film crew following him around.......... maybe all digital? His digital body looked like a R.

Not that the gear is what mattered; he did some great work with film.
 
jerry12953 said:
Who knows what he would have done if there wasn't a film crew following him around.......... maybe all digital? His digital body looked like a R.
Click to expand...

Apart from a very brief step into Digital (sponsored by Cannon when they invited out to Syria), Don has gone on record on more than one occasion to state he prefers the "honesty" of film over digital.........
 
AnthonyJC said:
Apart from a very brief step into Digital (sponsored by Cannon when they invited out to Syria), Don has gone on record on more than one occasion to state he prefers the "honesty" of film over digital.........
Click to expand...


Yes, I remember him saying something like that in the programme. But he definitely had a digital body for some of the sequences. However, as i said, it's not about the equipment.......

AnthonyJC said:
My son bought me a copy of McCullin book The Landscape book for Christmas.

Beautifully presented & printed. Every shot could be plucked from the book and framed, they are that good in my humble opinion.
Click to expand...

I'll look out for that.
 
I remember him extolling the virtues of a 5D (think it was a mk3) and suggesting his film days were over, mind you he was a Canon ambassador at the time, not that anyone made a secret of that but it does seem likely his choice of equipment may be influenced by external interests? I recorded the programme but I am sure I will like his photos (as I always have, regardless of medium) so his choice of camera wouldn't have much of an effect on me as I doubt if I buy whatever he uses will immediately transform me into another Don McCullin.
 
That was brilliant, what an amazing man and his photographs are stunning.
 
Andysnap said:
That was brilliant, what an amazing man and his photographs are stunning.
Click to expand...
And a shining example to us (relatively) young pups in the F&C crowd. ;) Handholding an RB67 at 83? We are truly not worthy! :notworthy:
 
Last edited:
AnthonyJC said:
Apart from a very brief step into Digital (sponsored by Cannon when they invited out to Syria), Don has gone on record on more than one occasion to state he prefers the "honesty" of film over digital.........
Click to expand...

.......using a digi? it could be like a few here i.e. digi for work and film for pleasure.
 
There was a clash at the scheduled time, so I set it up to record when next broadcast at 3 am. Just started watching, and it has the sign language guy in the corner. I'm gonna have to revert to iPlayer!
 
excalibur2 said:
.......using a digi? it could be like a few here i.e. digi for work and film for pleasure.
Click to expand...
He was using both in this documentary.
 
jerry12953 said:
Who knows what he would have done if there wasn't a film crew following him around.......... maybe all digital? His digital body looked like a R.

Not that the gear is what mattered; he did some great work with film.
Click to expand...

Just finished watching it, he was using 5DIVs with what looked like 24L/35L/85L lenses.

Fantastic documentary, really enjoyed it. When I attended a talk of his at a retrospective at the Imperial War Museum a few years ago he referred to his darkroom as 'womb-like', in this documentary it's now a tomb.

Interesting to see how he interacted with strangers on the streets too, especially in the areas of London that I frequent quite often.
 
MatBin said:
He was using both in this documentary.
Click to expand...

Well horses for courses, but he still likes film otherwise he would have stopped using it many years ago, even though in one part he had the inconvenience of not having enough film with him.
 
Peter B said:
A first-class watch, and well worth seeking out on the iPlayer. His retrospective has also just opened at the Tate Britain in London, and the Guardian has given it a 5 star review.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/feb/04/don-mccullin-tate-retrospective-review
Click to expand...

I think it's the same or very similar exhibition that was at the Hauser & Wirth gallery in Somerset based on the local news item on this yesterday. Similar prints, artifacts (the camera with the bullet hole in it) etc.

I went to his talk he did there. He said he preferred the honesty of film over digital and loved the processing part in the dark room, losing himself in that process.
 
FishyFish said:
It was a really nice documentary and, I think, benefitted from not focussing on his war photographs. Some great pictures - especially the ones on Scarborough beach and the rainy pier at Eastbourne.

It reminded me that I really need to watch the Jane Bown documentary that's on Amazon Prime.
Click to expand...

His landscapes, the Somerset levels etc are really good, again in black and white, but showing the process of his 'street' captures in this programme was really interesting
 
Another documentary about Don McCullin and his work, I found this one shocking and saddening at the same time as fantastic have a look and tell us what you think!

Don McCullin
 
I wonder when he got his "posh" accent as he doesn't sound like a Londoner born and raised in a poorer area of London.
 
excalibur2 said:
Well horses for courses, but he still likes film otherwise he would have stopped using it many years ago, even though in one part he had the inconvenience of not having enough film with him.
Click to expand...
I think there's a place in photography for both mediums. For us it's a hobby, as it is sometimes for pros, so we should use the kit that gives us the most pleasure be it film in any of it's formats (and therein lies the possibility of even greater choice/pleasure) or digital, where in my view we have a limited choice of format in that there's little chance of using medium format due to the extreme high cost of the kit, long may film live on for at least it's relatively low price in the larger formats.
 
excalibur2 said:
I wonder when he got his "posh" accent as he doesn't sound like a Londoner born and raised in a poorer area of London.
Click to expand...
probably when he moved out of London (like most of us from the "smoke") :)
 
excalibur2 said:
I wonder when he got his "posh" accent as he doesn't sound like a Londoner born and raised in a poorer area of London.
Click to expand...
I’m about the same age as him and lived the first 4 years of my life quite near to him and my parents were born in that area. Like him I was evacuated/bombed out to Dorset (he to Somerset) and went to school there as probably he did in Somerset. Back then it wasn’t considered to speak with a gor-blimey accent so you shouldn’t assume his parents, though poor, didn’t speak ‘proper’ :):):) and moving around changes how you speak. The BBC RP pronunciation had more influence then.
My other ‘connection’ with him is that I was in Aden when he was in Suez in 1956, can’t think why I didn’t become a famous photographer :confused::confused::confused:.
 
MatBin said:
I think there's a place in photography for both mediums. For us it's a hobby, as it is sometimes for pros, so we should use the kit that gives us the most pleasure be it film in any of it's formats (and therein lies the possibility of even greater choice/pleasure) or digital, where in my view we have a limited choice of format in that there's little chance of using medium format due to the extreme high cost of the kit, long may film live on for at least it's relatively low price in the larger formats.
Click to expand...

Looking at another video of him using the canon dslr and he liked it and was amazed by what it could do esp in low light..but he said he had been using film for so long and at his age would find it more difficult to change from his old ways and did say he uses it like film i.e. taking one shot at a time.
 
Oldies will spot the part about the group captain (acting) by the aircraft..well Don asked the guy when he did his national service and the guy send H'mm I think it was in 1962.
 
excalibur2 said:
Oldies will spot the part about the group captain (acting) by the aircraft..well Don asked the guy when he did his national service and the guy send H'mm I think it was in 1962.
Click to expand...
Should have asked him his service number ;) , mine is burned into my memory (all those pay parades) as also is the year I was called up and the fact that my nice holiday East Africa was cancelled in 1956 thanks to Anthony Eden’s Suez adventure :mad:. On the other hand perhaps he really was a Group Captain and was a bit clueless ;).
 
23250788 Corporal Elgar P.J Royal Army Medical Corps --- " Pay Parade--- Pay Parade SHUN !!!! Salute the Officer, Say Last 3 of your Number,take your Pay in LEFT Hand, one step Back, Salute, Turn RIGHT and March Off Smartly " ------
Army 89.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top