Don McCullin Calls Vietnam Book His Last — CBS News
In the United Kingdom, 90-year-old war photographer Don McCullin is preparing to publish a book, Vietnam, which he says will be the last of his career. The publication will bring together photographs he took during several assignments to Vietnam in the 1960s and early 1970s, CBS News reports.
Photographs from the Battle of Huế
The book will include both the photographer’s best-known works and a selection of photographs that have not previously been shown. Central to it are images taken during the 1968 Battle of Huế during the Tet Offensive.
McCullin said that a senior officer told him about an operation that was supposed to last 24 hours. However, the photographer remained in the city for another 11 days. It was in Huế that he took one of his best-known photographs, Shell-shocked US Marine.
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The photograph shows a U.S. Marine sitting with a rifle and staring motionlessly into the distance. According to McCullin, he took five frames of the serviceman, and in none of them did he even blink. The photographer also said that he still feels uncomfortable about the popularity of this image.
The Line Between Observing and Helping
McCullin recalled a wounded Marine whom he initially photographed near a wall under enemy fire. When other Marines tried to carry the wounded man through a narrow alley under fire, the photographer put down his cameras, lifted the serviceman onto his back and carried him to safety along an old medieval wall.
McCullin covered armed conflicts for more than 50 years, including in Cyprus, Biafra, Israel, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Northern Ireland. He said that what he experienced during the Battle of Huế still stays with him every night. In the photographer’s view, war photographs should cause discomfort and make viewers think about human suffering rather than provide a sense of comfort.
