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Donald Mccullin War Photography

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Introduction
"War is partly madness, mostly insanity and the rest is schizophrenia.”- Don McCullin. (BBC Imagine 2013 McCullin)
Capturing the decisive moments of these wars have not just created a genre of photography called war photography but also enhanced public awareness. Both Donald McCullin and Eddie Adams, being photojournalists recognized for their war photography, have produced some outstanding photographs and successfully portrayed the harsh reality of war. Even though their conceptual concerns were similar, there was a visible variation in terms of their styles, techniques, compositions and subjects. A further comparison between the two photographers for the above attributes has been done later. Apart from his coverage of 13 wars, …show more content…

McCullin was born in a poor section of London, United Kingdoms (McCullin D, Contact Press Images). Despite of being dyslexic he aspired to be a painter and showed immense talent in his drawings (Wroe N, 22 May 2010). It was very unfortunate that despite of getting junior arts scholarship to Hammersmith School of Arts and Crafts, he couldn’t pursue his studies further and had to leave school to earn money for his family after his father’s death (McCullin D, Wikipedia 11 August 2015). He got his first opportunity in the field of photography when he worked as a photographer’s assistant during his time of National service at the Royal Air Force (RAF) (Wroe N, 22 May 2010). In his early twenties with no formal training, McCullin began his career photographing the violent teenage gangs ruling Finsbury Park (BBC Imagine 2013 McCullin). He took the photographs of a London gang to The Observer, a British newspaper, they asked him to click more pictures and published them (BBC Imagine 2013 McCullin). This was a great breakthrough for him as he came from a violent background where people were judged on how well one could fight or steal or do harm to the society. He later worked with the Sunday Times Magazine, to cover many wars as a foreign correspondent. He covered the Vietnam War and the Northern Ireland conflict for which he got a lot of recognition (McCullin D, Wikipedia 11 August 2015). His objective of …show more content…

Don McCullin chose war photography because it made him feel he had a purpose (BBC Imagine 2013 McCullin). Purpose that was to portray the horrific humanity and the ugly truths of wars to the rest of the world and create awareness about the sufferings of people associated with these wars. McCullin documented a substantial number of conflicts and atrocities with different subjects in the photographs. His own sense of accountability and judgment about certain circumstances restrained his from taking some pictures (BBC Imagine 2013 McCullin). Unlike other photographer, he not just clicked pictures and completed his duties as a photographer but also helped on humanitarian grounds with whatever physical ability he had (BBC Imagine 2013 McCullin). Eddie Adams had an intense desire to be perfect with his photography and took close up portraits with an emphasis on the storytelling (Adler M, 2009). But despite of wanting to be perfect all the time with his framing, one of his most famous and iconic pictures, Saigon Execution, was a very spontaneous decision of just lifting the camera and pressing the click button without any thought process of how it's going to look. Adams’ spontaneity and perfectionist skills have

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