I think that the interview between John Tusa and Don McCullin was first broadcast on Radio 3 in August 2002, so I’m not sure why it should surface again as a news item on Photo District News last week – or why they should write “John Tusa recently interviewed McCullin about his work, his anger, the public nature of grief and more.”
That said, it’s worth listening to – or reading the transcript – again, as McCullin has a few things to say and talks very honestly about his feelings and how vital they are to his photography.
There are several other interviews with McCullin on the web, including one in 1987 with photographer Frank Horvat, which has the advantage of including some of his pictures, and another from 1995 on Zeugma.
His pictures are not particularly well shown on line, though you can see a miserly few at the V&A and a small and relatively recent set from Darfur where he went for Oxfam on the BBC, first shown in 2007 – and there is also a short video on which he talks about them. Otherwise, a Google Image search is perhaps the best way to see more of his work online.
McCullin talks to Tusa about his liking to travel light: “I’m not like Father Christmas, from Dixons, standing there, covered from head to foot in equipment. “
At just over 5mins this clip is woefully short but is very recent being at this years Hay Festival.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_HuAsHbFu4o&feature=user
I have just opened my copy of “In England’ by Mcullin. I need to study it at length but images seen at random are moving in the extreme. I recommend it unreservedly.
Thanks for that, good to see him looking well, if rather older than when I last saw him. I can only agree with his sentiments about this country “not having made much progress in this area” (poverty) that finish the clip. Also its interesting to see how much better an interviewer Tusa is!
Tusa had a much better brief I suspect.
I presume the publication of “In England” is the trigger for this interest.
Quote from;
Martin Parr’s Best Photo Books of 2007originally published in the Sunday Times of London.
Britains best known photojournalist is Don McCullin who has recently published In England (Random House, U.K., n.a. in the U.S.). Here, he combines iconic images taken in the ’70s with new shooting from 2006. However, many of the new photos also could have been taken 30 years ago, as McCullins sooty black and white grainy images of people at either end of the wealth spectrum offer an almost cartoon-like rendition of the English. The most difficult thing for any photographer to achieve is a personal vision, and McCullin scores very well on this front. It is a pleasure to see 40 years shooting in England in one volume.
End Quote
Praise indeed.