{"id":302760,"date":"2025-11-24T01:03:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T01:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/302760\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T01:03:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T01:03:11","slug":"wars-have-left-me-with-no-faith-in-humanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/302760\/","title":{"rendered":"Wars have left me with no faith in humanity"},"content":{"rendered":"

The celebrated war photographer Sir Don McCullin has said the wars in Ukraine and Gaza have left him with \u201cno faith in humanity\u201d and believing his life\u2019s work was \u201ca waste of time\u201d.<\/p>\n

McCullin, 90, who lives in Somerset, covered dozens of conflicts and humanitarian crises over a 60-year career and is best-known for his images of the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n

Asked what he was optimistic about, McCullin replied: \u201cAbsolutely nothing, actually. I have no faith in humanity. I feel selfishly aware of the fact that I\u2019ve probably got two or three years left at my age.<\/p>\n

\"Don<\/p>\n

McCullin in conversation with Jeremy Bowen at the Barbican in London last week<\/p>\n

JOSHUA BRATT<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve just passed my 90th birthday. I\u2019m really ashamed that we haven\u2019t achieved anything in the media. We haven\u2019t changed anything. What have I been doing for the last 60 years? Totally wasting my time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding ongoing wars, he added: \u201cWe can\u2019t do anything about it, that\u2019s the problem. The people who can do things like, for instance, Mr Trump, who could have changed so much<\/a> this year with the two ongoing wars, and he wants to turn one of the areas of war into a kind of Florida, a gutter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Don McCullin: \u2018None of my photographs made any difference\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

His comments, made in front of a packed audience at the Barbican last week, came amidst allegations that Donald Trump\u2019s peace deal in the Russia-Ukraine war<\/a> amounted to \u201ccapitulation\u201d to President Putin.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the peace deal in Palestine has had a shaky start with continuing violence in Gaza and the West Bank.<\/p>\n

It was during his national service in the 1950s that McCullin, who grew up in Finsbury Park, north London, discovered photography, buying a \u00a330 camera in Nairobi, where he was stationed.<\/p>\n

In 1958 he took a photo of a London gang posed on a bombed-out building and sold it to The Observer, who asked him to keep going.<\/p>\n

Within a decade he was the overseas correspondent for The Sunday Times magazine, lining up assignments including the Biafran War, the African Aids epidemic and Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

\"Black<\/p>\n

Starving twenty-four-year old mother and child, Biafra ,1968<\/p>\n

DON MCCULLIN<\/p>\n

However, it was his work in Vietnam that would make him the most famous photojournalist of his generation.<\/p>\n

His 1968 picture of the shell-shocked US marine was taken in the Tet Offensive<\/a>, and he later described it as a \u201csilent protest about the futility of war\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Shell<\/p>\n

Shell-shocked US Marine, Vietnam, the Battle of Hue, 1968<\/p>\n

DON MCCULLIN<\/p>\n

Speaking last week, he reflected on how war journalism has changed, in particular with access to the front denied to journalists by the Israel Defence Forces and by the drones that haunt the Ukrainian lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Vietnam War, the American army gave journalists carte blanche,\u201d he said. \u201cYou could jump on a helicopter and get to those places. You can\u2019t do it today though. You certainly cannot, they wouldn\u2019t let you anywhere near it [the front].\u201d<\/p>\n

But his years of reporting, providing some of the most iconic pictures of war of the 20th century have left their scar.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Bogside, Northern Ireland, Londonderry 1971<\/p>\n

DON MCCULLIN<\/p>\n

\u201cWars follow me to bed at night. I think about it every night I go to bed,\u201d he told the audience, adding that the sights of death \u201care very deep in me. They get into my psyche and they never get out. That\u2019s why I\u2019m talking about this 50, 60 years later.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to forget these sights. You see, when people wake up in the morning, they don\u2019t expect to get killed that day, so you see them and think, well he\u2019s wearing green socks and look, he\u2019s done up his shoelaces.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Local boys in Bradford, 1972<\/p>\n

DON MCCULLEN<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just turn up and expect, we can walk in amongst their lives and their grief and take pictures, and I\u2019ve always been aware that I didn\u2019t have the right in the beginning to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, aged 89<\/a>, he returned to Syria with Anthony Loyd, The Times\u2019s special correspondent<\/a>, which he described as an \u201calmost spiritual experience\u201d.<\/p>\n

But now he advises young photojournalists to avoid war. \u201cIf you want to go to war, go to some of our cities in England. There are social wars out there that need checking out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The celebrated war photographer Sir Don McCullin has said the wars in Ukraine and Gaza have left him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-302760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}