{"id":79500,"date":"2016-06-07T14:21:56","date_gmt":"2016-06-07T13:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amateurphotographer.co.uk\/?p=79500"},"modified":"2016-06-09T11:55:13","modified_gmt":"2016-06-09T10:55:13","slug":"don-mccullin-life-black-white","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/technique\/interviews\/don-mccullin-life-black-white\/","title":{"rendered":"Don McCullin interview: life in black &amp; white"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div id=&quot;attachment_79702&quot;  class=\"c-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1220px\">\n\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-79702\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Sheep-going-to-the-Slaughter-Early-Morning-Near-the-Caledonian-Road-London-1965.jpg\" alt=\"Sheep going to the Slaughter, Early Morning, near the Caledonian Road, London, 1965\" width=\"1200\" height=\"785\" srcset=\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/Sheep-going-to-the-Slaughter-Early-Morning-Near-the-Caledonian-Road-London-1965.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/Sheep-going-to-the-Slaughter-Early-Morning-Near-the-Caledonian-Road-London-1965.jpg?resize=300,196 300w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/Sheep-going-to-the-Slaughter-Early-Morning-Near-the-Caledonian-Road-London-1965.jpg?resize=611,400 611w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/Sheep-going-to-the-Slaughter-Early-Morning-Near-the-Caledonian-Road-London-1965.jpg?resize=900,589 900w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/Sheep-going-to-the-Slaughter-Early-Morning-Near-the-Caledonian-Road-London-1965.jpg?resize=562,368 562w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/>\t\t\t<p class=\"c-caption__text\">Sheep going to the Slaughter, Early Morning, near the Caledonian Road, London, 1965<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<p>Photographing conflict has become an all- too-familiar staple of photography. It\u2019s a genre that began with Roger Fenton who documented the Crimean War back in 1855 and went on to feature people such as Robert Capa, one of the greatest war photographers of our time, who was killed in Vietnam in 1954 after stepping on a landmine while reporting on the First Indochina War.<\/p>\n<p>While the methods of warfare may change, war is a constant in human civilisation, and for decades photographers have risked their lives to bring the truth to the world. Don McCullin, who was born into a working-class family in north London in 1935, has spent the past six decades visiting some of the most dangerous places in the world.<\/p>\n\t\t<div id=&quot;attachment_79711&quot;  class=\"c-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1220px\">\n\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-79711\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/A-Palestinian-Woman-returning-to-the-ruins-of-her-house-Sabra-Beirut-1982.jpg\" alt=\"A Palestinian woman returning to the ruins of her house, Sabra, Beirut, 1982\" width=\"1200\" height=\"811\" srcset=\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/06\/A-Palestinian-Woman-returning-to-the-ruins-of-her-house-Sabra-Beirut-1982.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/06\/A-Palestinian-Woman-returning-to-the-ruins-of-her-house-Sabra-Beirut-1982.jpg?resize=300,203 300w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/06\/A-Palestinian-Woman-returning-to-the-ruins-of-her-house-Sabra-Beirut-1982.jpg?resize=592,400 592w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/06\/A-Palestinian-Woman-returning-to-the-ruins-of-her-house-Sabra-Beirut-1982.jpg?resize=900,608 900w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/06\/A-Palestinian-Woman-returning-to-the-ruins-of-her-house-Sabra-Beirut-1982.jpg?resize=562,380 562w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/>\t\t\t<p class=\"c-caption__text\">A Palestinian woman returning to the ruins of her house, Sabra, Beirut, 1982<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<p>Don celebrated his 80th birthday last year, which was commemorated by an updated version of the retrospective photobook, simply called <em>Don McCullin<\/em>; a new version of his autobiography, <em>Unreasonable Behaviour<\/em>; and a limited-edition collection of his images, called <em>Irreconcilable Truths<\/em>. McCullin will also be exhibiting work at Photo London from 19-22 May and the Arles photography festival in France from 4 July-28 August. It\u2019s been a hectic few months.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I never had an interest in photography,\u2019 says McCullin. \u2018I was in the Royal Air Force and I came out with a very nice camera, a Rolleicord, which was inappropriate for doing reportage. Someone had encouraged me to buy it. I was stationed in Nairobi, Kenya, and someone there said, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you buy this Rolleicord? It will only cost you 30 quid. It\u2019s brand-spanking new and comes in a beautiful case.\u201d So I bought this camera and I went around Nairobi with it for a couple of days and took a couple of pictures. Looking back, they were really amateurish shots. I then went from Nairobi to Cyprus, then came back and put the camera in a chest of drawers. I never had any interest in it after that because I returned to the environment I left before my military service started.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>McCullin put the camera into a pawn shop, but it wasn\u2019t long before he reclaimed it because his mother was concerned that he would fall into bad company if he didn\u2019t have something to occupy himself. Ironically, it was the fact that he mixed with slightly unsavoury people that gave him his first break in photography, he remembers.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018The boys I grew up with got involved with something quite violent \u2013 the murder of a policeman,\u2019 says McCullin. \u2018They didn\u2019t do it, the other crowd did. During the build-up to the trial, they said, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you go and get that camera and take some pictures of us\u201d. They knew this was going to be in the newspapers and they were showing off. I took one picture of them in a derelict building, which is at the bottom of my street where I grew up.<\/p>\n\t\t<div id=&quot;attachment_79703&quot;  class=\"c-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1220px\">\n\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-79703\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/The-Guvnors-in-their-Sunday-Suits-Finsbury-Park-London-1958.jpg\" alt=\"The Guvnors in their Sunday Suits, Finsbury Park, London, 1958\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1215\" srcset=\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/The-Guvnors-in-their-Sunday-Suits-Finsbury-Park-London-1958.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/The-Guvnors-in-their-Sunday-Suits-Finsbury-Park-London-1958.jpg?resize=300,304 300w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/The-Guvnors-in-their-Sunday-Suits-Finsbury-Park-London-1958.jpg?resize=395,400 395w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/The-Guvnors-in-their-Sunday-Suits-Finsbury-Park-London-1958.jpg?resize=900,911 900w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/The-Guvnors-in-their-Sunday-Suits-Finsbury-Park-London-1958.jpg?resize=562,569 562w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/>\t\t\t<p class=\"c-caption__text\">The Guvnors in their Sunday Suits, Finsbury Park, London, 1958<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<p>\u2018I was working in Mayfair, in London, at the time in an animation studio. I was given my job back after national service, as a sort of messenger boy. Then they said, \u201cNow you\u2019ve worked in a darkroom, would you take over our darkroom?\u201d They did line drawings, so I had to photograph the drawings, use the enlarger and work in the darkroom. I processed the film of the boys in that darkroom and I still have the negative to this day. It\u2019s probably one of the best negatives I\u2019ve got. I had no exposure meter, so I guessed the exposure. I even remember it was taken on an Ilford FP3, which was a very slow but a very fine film.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018The people in the place where I was working \u2013 a very posh place in London\u2019s Berkeley Square \u2013 saw the picture and they said, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you take this picture to <em>The Observer<\/em>?\u201d So I did, and they asked me to take some more pictures for them, which they published.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The following Monday, McCullin was contacted by various companies and offered jobs in TV, on newspapers and magazines. \u2018But I wasn\u2019t really a photographer,\u2019 he says. \u2018It was a pure fluke that I composed this picture and it<br \/>\nwas quite dramatic.\u2019<\/p>\n<h2>Monochrome world<\/h2>\n<p>The language of reportage photography is nearly always composed in black &amp; white, with its best exponents utilising monochrome. McCullin eschews colour in his work for a very deliberate reason. \u2018I think colour takes you on another journey,\u2019 he explains. \u2018With me, I\u2019ve always been a black &amp; white photographer.<\/p>\n<p>I was forced to do colour when I eventually found myself working on <em>The Sunday Times<\/em>, so colour became a necessity. But even so, I used to persuade the art director there to let me shoot black &amp; white and they would put my mono images on a four-colour printing press. Black &amp; white is bleak and stark, and it brings reality into things, whereas colour gives you opportunities to go off at different thoughts and places.\u2019<\/p>\n\t\t<div id=&quot;attachment_79700&quot;  class=\"c-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1220px\">\n\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-79700\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Friedrichstrasse-Berlin-1961.jpg\" alt=\"Friedrichstrasse, Berlin, 1961\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1178\" srcset=\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/Friedrichstrasse-Berlin-1961.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/Friedrichstrasse-Berlin-1961.jpg?resize=300,295 300w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/Friedrichstrasse-Berlin-1961.jpg?resize=407,400 407w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/Friedrichstrasse-Berlin-1961.jpg?resize=900,884 900w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/Friedrichstrasse-Berlin-1961.jpg?resize=562,552 562w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/>\t\t\t<p class=\"c-caption__text\">Friedrichstrasse, Berlin, 1961<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<p>McCullin\u2019s work has a very distinctive style, thanks to carving his own niche. \u2018With reportage, you had to be on the street and you had to have your feet in the mud,\u2019 he says. \u2018It\u2019s not a case of being protected by a knowledgeable photographer and you have the comfort and safety and warmth of that.\u2019 He does, however, admit that his career wouldn\u2019t have taken off without the input of other people in the same profession.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018While there was some influence of other photographers, I still very much had my own identity,\u2019 says McCullin. \u2018When you work for someone like, say, Bailey and Irving Penn, you were stifled by their fearful reputation and tantrums. I have made my own journey in life. I wasn\u2019t relying upon other people. On the other hand, I couldn\u2019t have made that journey without acknowledging the work of other people.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps surprisingly, the photographer who influenced McCullin the most wasn\u2019t a war photographer, but someone who specialised in a different field entirely. \u2018I studied the work of Alfred Stieglitz, who for me was much more important than Capa,\u2019 says McCullin. \u2018Covering wars is easy if you\u2019ve got the b***s to do it, because it happens in front of you. You don\u2019t have to compose or create, whereas somebody like Alfred Stieglitz was a very intellectual, very creative, sophisticated person in his own right, and he dictated on many occasions where he thought photography was most important.\u2019<\/p>\n\t\t<div id=&quot;attachment_79704&quot;  class=\"c-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 803px\">\n\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-79704\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/US-Soldiers-tormenting-a-civilian-in-the-old-city-of-Hue-during-the-offensive-Tet-Hue-1968.jpg\" alt=\"US Soldiers tormenting a civilian in the old city of Hue during the offensive, Tet, Hue, 1968\" width=\"783\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/US-Soldiers-tormenting-a-civilian-in-the-old-city-of-Hue-during-the-offensive-Tet-Hue-1968.jpg 783w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/US-Soldiers-tormenting-a-civilian-in-the-old-city-of-Hue-during-the-offensive-Tet-Hue-1968.jpg?resize=300,460 300w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/US-Soldiers-tormenting-a-civilian-in-the-old-city-of-Hue-during-the-offensive-Tet-Hue-1968.jpg?resize=261,400 261w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/US-Soldiers-tormenting-a-civilian-in-the-old-city-of-Hue-during-the-offensive-Tet-Hue-1968.jpg?resize=562,861 562w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 783px) 100vw, 783px\" \/>\t\t\t<p class=\"c-caption__text\">US Soldiers tormenting a civilian in the old city of Hue during the offensive, Tet, Hue, 1968<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<h2>Fractured parameters<\/h2>\n<p>Perhaps because he came from a different background to many of his contemporaries, McCullin had no problem breaking the rules and conventions of the industry. \u2018They are meant to be broken,\u2019 he says. \u2018In the late 1960s I went to a Commonwealth Prime Ministers\u2019 Conference, and in those days the Fleet Street photographers all lined up to take photos. I ran out in front of them with my 35mm camera and they shouted: \u201cOi! You can\u2019t do that! Get back here! What the Hell do you think you\u2019re doing?\u201d They also said: \u201cDo you think you\u2019re going to get anything with that stupid little camera?\u201d They were all using Rolleiflexes and I had a 35mm Pentax at the time. So they were making fun of me, thinking I wouldn\u2019t get anything with such a \u201chorrible little camera\u201d. People like Henri Cartier-Bresson went around the world with a 35mm Leica and took the greatest pictures in the world, so why would I listen to fools like that? So I did break the rules.\u2019<\/p>\n\t\t<div id=&quot;attachment_79708&quot;  class=\"c-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 826px\">\n\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-79708\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Tormented-Homeless-Irishman-Spitalfields-London-1969.jpg\" alt=\"Tormented, Homeless Irishman, Spitalfields, London, 1969\" width=\"806\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/06\/Tormented-Homeless-Irishman-Spitalfields-London-1969.jpg 806w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/06\/Tormented-Homeless-Irishman-Spitalfields-London-1969.jpg?resize=300,447 300w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/06\/Tormented-Homeless-Irishman-Spitalfields-London-1969.jpg?resize=269,400 269w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/06\/Tormented-Homeless-Irishman-Spitalfields-London-1969.jpg?resize=562,837 562w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 806px) 100vw, 806px\" \/>\t\t\t<p class=\"c-caption__text\">Tormented, Homeless Irishman, Spitalfields, London, 1969<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<p>McCullin still develops film, but decades of working in a darkroom have taken their toll. \u2018I am not going to be doing it for much longer,\u2019 he says. \u2018I have passed my 80th birthday and I am not going to be standing in that darkroom. I have been doing that for 60 years and am beginning to get chest wheezes and pains. Doing that for 60 years, I might as well have been smoking three packs of fags a day. Developing fluid is lethal stuff.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>He does use digital cameras, but he still has a preference for film. \u2018I have been given some digital cameras, and it has just taken me a while to understand them. They are far too sophisticated for anybody,\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n<p>McCullin is best known as a war photographer, and he has seen some of the worst acts humanity has carried out over the years. \u2018You can\u2019t divorce yourself from tragedy like that,\u2019 he says. \u2018It\u2019s impossible. If you do, you shouldn\u2019t be doing it. How it affects me is that I get less and less patient with things and people. I have realised that \u2013 particularly now \u2013 what affects me is doing what I am doing now, talking about it. I am so tired of talking about it because I have been doing it for so long.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Over the past few decades, McCullin has switched his emphasis to landscapes, a subject that seems a world apart from his war photography. But the former Londoner, who has lived in Somerset for three decades, gets a great deal out of documenting the land.<\/p>\n\t\t<div id=&quot;attachment_79705&quot;  class=\"c-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1220px\">\n\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-79705\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Dew-Pond-by-Iron-Age-Fort-Somerset.jpg\" alt=\"Dew Pond by Iron Age Fort Somerset\" width=\"1200\" height=\"801\" srcset=\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/Dew-Pond-by-Iron-Age-Fort-Somerset.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/Dew-Pond-by-Iron-Age-Fort-Somerset.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/Dew-Pond-by-Iron-Age-Fort-Somerset.jpg?resize=599,400 599w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/Dew-Pond-by-Iron-Age-Fort-Somerset.jpg?resize=900,601 900w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/Dew-Pond-by-Iron-Age-Fort-Somerset.jpg?resize=562,375 562w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/Dew-Pond-by-Iron-Age-Fort-Somerset.jpg?resize=600,400 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/>\t\t\t<p class=\"c-caption__text\">Dew Pond by Iron Age Fort Somerset<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<p>\u2018I started [landscape photography] before I came to live in Somerset,\u2019 explains McCullin. \u2018I used to live in Hertfordshire and took two nice pictures: one of a dead sparrow in the snow, and one of my village at dusk and you can hardly see it. I was enthusiastic about not settling and pointing my camera at one thing.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018You should not be governed by rules, which I think should be broken. I had such a wide canvas that I looked at the sky, and I looked at the landscape, and I started forming a kind of love affair with the wintrous landscape of England. I am not interested in the summer because it comes too close to a chocolate-box image. It\u2019s even worse now because if you take a digital camera and do an autumn shot, it\u2019s so sickly. The colours are totally false, they&#8217;re not real colours from digital cameras.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><em>Don McCullin CBE, Hon FRPS, is a British photographer whose images of warfare and social hardship have been widely seen and published throughout the world. He has also recently produced a series of landscape images. <\/em><\/p>\n\t\t<div id=&quot;attachment_79701&quot;  class=\"c-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 417px\">\n\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-79701\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Headshot-by-Joel-Meadows.jpg\" alt=\"Don McCullin headshot by Joel Meadows\" width=\"397\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/Headshot-by-Joel-Meadows.jpg 397w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/Headshot-by-Joel-Meadows.jpg?resize=300,453 300w, https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2016\/05\/Headshot-by-Joel-Meadows.jpg?resize=265,400 265w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 397px) 100vw, 397px\" \/>\t\t\t<p class=\"c-caption__text\">Don McCullin headshot by Joel Meadows<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<p><em>Visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.contactpressimages.com\" target=\"_blank\">www.contactpressimages.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Don McCullin is arguably the UK&#8217;s most important living documentary photographer, with a career that spans more than six decades. He talks to Joel Meadows about his work and life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":323,"featured_media":79711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[374],"tags":[484],"product-category":[],"class_list":["post-79500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","tag-homepage"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.8 (Yoast SEO v26.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Don McCullin interview: life in black &amp; white - Amateur Photographer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Don McCullin is arguably the UK&#039;s most important living documentary photographer, with a career that spans more than six decades. 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