War photographer Don McCullin unveils retrospective in Madrid
MADRID (AFP) — Don McCullin, one of the greatest war photographers of the 20th century, unveils a retrospective of his work in Madrid on Wednesday, a mirror of the conflicts that have wracked the planet in the past 40 years.
It will be the Briton's first major exhibition in Spain, the country where the myth of modern war photographers was born with Robert Capa during the 1936-39 civil war.
McCullin's picture of a shellshocked US Marine in Hue in 1968 during the Vietnam war was seen around the world, and is among 129 black and white photographs on show until January 27 at the Canal de Isabel II Cultural Centre.
His work, mostly for the British newspaper The Sunday Times, has taken him to Biafra, Vietnam, Afghanistan, the Middle East, Northern Ireland, Bangladesh and Cyprus, and in 1964 he won the World Press Photo Award.
The exhibition is called "Don McCullin, a heroic path". But McCullin is uncomfortable with this description.
"I am not a hero, even though I took a lot of risks," he told AFP. "My role was to go there to recall the tragedies and bring back the message."
He also resents being called "an artist," lamenting the current tendancy in photojournalism to "associate photography with art."
At 72, he has abandoned war zones to photograph "peaceful" country scenes in the English county of Somerset where he now lives, or, in his latest project, Roman archeological sites from around the Mediterranean.
But even there, he cannot escape the feeling of tragedy associated with his photographs.
"When you see the magnificence of the monuments, you know it could have only be achieved by cruelty," he said.
