Literature

"I want to photograph landscapes. I am sentencing myself to peace."

~Don McCullin

Don McCullin is a national and world treasure, both as a photographer and a human being. He is one of the most focused individuals I have ever met. Empathetic and brooding, completely in the moment but also surrounded by an aura of self-protecting distance. He has witnessed events that most people would run away from, choose not to see or even deny their very existence.

The landscape near his home in the countryside has been a source of joy, healing and inspiration, and a complete contrast to his and other great photographers’ peripatetic lifestyles, which I guess go along with the job. When I visit, it does that

for me – a return to one’s roots. Nothing can ever replace that feeling. Like McCullin, I was brought up in a poor part of north London, on the wrong side of the tracks. We all sensed that there was a much bigger world out there that had to be

explored one way or another. There was really no choice. Photography has been that passport. As McCullin modestly says:

“Photography for me is not 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.”