Photography Documentary: Don McCullin - War photojournalism

[Marina9]

So yesterday we were talking in school about ethics in journalism and mainly the use of 'sensasionalists' photos to make a statement. We were discussing about how where I live we get lots of newspapers with bloody pictures, disfigured people and really shocking images and many times people see this newspapers with morbid curiosity instead of really looking at what were the real causes of what happened.. the question was, is this the right way to present an event? My feelings were mixed with this question cause i do believe we have to tell things as how they are really going on around the world, but maybe being too sensationalist is not always the answer ? So im still trying to answer myself to the question, but I would like to share this documentary with you guys.


An extract from a review on the documentary says:

Ever since the invention of photography the camera has been a vital witness to war: Roger Fenton in the Crimea; Mathew Brady recording the American civil war; John Warwick Brooke on the Western Front in the first world war; Robert Capa covering the Spanish civil war, the second world war and war in Indochina, where he died in 1954. The British photojournalist Don McCullin belongs in their company, and in this excellent documentary the careworn, ruggedly handsome McCullin talks straight to camera with great honesty about covering wars and conflicts in Cyprus, Congo, Biafra, Vietnam, Northern Ireland, Cambodia and Lebanon. [..]

McCullin became what the French call a baroudeur, a man obsessively drawn to combat, but not in an exploitative, sensationalist way. Though there is a deal of newsreel material in the Morrises' documentary and valuable comments on photojournalism by Harry Evans, former editor of the Sunday Times, what dominates the film are the black-and-white still images. They engrave themselves on our minds, and McCullin talks about them with great feeling and frankness. Nowadays he devotes himself to recording the British countryside, though since this film was made he's visited the civil war in Syria. Don't miss this fine film.

Trailer:

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Full Documentary:

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