Don McCullin, “began his long and distinguished career in photography more by accident than design” (Don McCullin · biography). He returned home from the National Service with the Royal Air Force and began taking photographs of his friends. After being persuaded to turn them into a newspaper he started off his 50+ year career marking himself as one of the greatest living photographers. Now at age 85, he still takes trips to photograph the bustle of the world around us.
McCullin started off working in war photography. He was in the Congo, Uganda, Chad, Cambodia, Israel, Iran and Afghanistan just to name a few. He was known for capturing pictures with impeccable composition for newspapers. The territory of war photography was no stranger to McCullin as he found himself in several confined situations such as being shot at or imprisoned. This never deterred him from telling the story with a single photograph that said much more than words ever could. Returning home after the wars he recounted the feeling of recording war photography saying, “I had long been uncomfortable with my label of war photographer, which suggested an almost exclusive interest in the suffering of other people. I knew I was capable of another voice” (Don McCullin · biography). He shifted his work toward recounting stories of places and people that the western world had not seen much of. He traveled from Southeast Asia to Africa to share those powerful narratives. In 1971, McCullin first visited Kolkata (Calcutta) in West Bengal, India during the Bangladesh Liberation War to photograph the city. After many years of this type of work, in 2017 he returned to Kolkata to document his photography process. This is the set of work I will focus on in regard to the representation of Kolkata.
Figure 1 Ablino Boy, Republic of Biafra (1969)
In order to look at the work of McCullin, it is important to understand Kolkata’s role in the history of its surrounding countries. Kolkata is a city located in West Bengal, India next to Bangladesh. In 1971, the Bangladesh Liberation War took place in East Pakistan (todays Bangladesh). Conflict arose when West Pakistan (todays Pakistan) and East Pakistan, which was all one country at the time, started to disagree on religious, political and cultural aspects of their country. For nine months East Pakistan began to separate from the West in a difficult battle for liberation. When they declared their independence there was a major refugee population that moved into Kolkata. This led to competition in several aspects of life in the West Bengal city that are now very prevalent.
In Don McCullin return, he was accompanied by a group shooting a documentary to showcase the process of his work. Don was the one who suggested going to Kolkata saying, “If you want people, we should go to Kolkata. It’s the most unbelievable city in the world” (Booth).
Figure 2 McCullin being documented on assignment in Kolkata in West Bengal, India
McCullin knew how he wanted to shoot, he wanted to go out with only two cameras and see where that took him. Followed by two cinematographers, he began his vivacious storytelling of the vibrant city (Figure 2). He was bouncing from place to place trying to capture as much as he could saying that it is “the most visual city in the world” (Booth). He worked to capture the people on the street, how they live and fill their days. His photographs were filled with the most interesting faces and circumstances, the most vibrant colors and chaos filled frames (Figure 3). “It’s a feast for the eyes” (Booth), as McCullin has said. And his work in India is just that – a full course meal.
Figure 3 Man in Kolkata (from photo essay)
Figure 4 – Man brushing his teeth (photo essay)
In the documentation of his time in Kolkata you can see McCullin snapping pictures of everything around him, but the viewer cannot help but see the overwhelming focus on the poor people in the streets. This was further enforced by McCullin narrating the film saying, “a city where people really struggle for every little of patch of soil they stand on” (Figure 5). It seems that there is an immense focus in this part of the world being documented in a certain light. So why not capture the other side of Kolkata? After talking to Chitrita Banerji, a Bengali-American author, who grew up in Kolkata I realized the great disparity between her description of the city she was raised in and how the city was documented by McCullin and his team. There is no doubt that there is a disproportion of people living in the streets but if one was to look beyond that, they would find so much more to Kolkata. Banerji explained this to me when we talked on the phone saying that people need to know the history before they go into a place so as not to judge off something that you might not know about. Things you see are “not the only facet” of a city or country. She wanted to ask McCullin and the documentation team, “Did you go anyplace else? Why didn’t you?”
Figure 5 – Person sleeping in the streets in Kolkata (from documentary)
In photojournalism there is always a fine line between taking advantage of your role as a professional photographer. McCullin seems to venture around that line, like most photographers, to get the amazing, award-winning photograph. McCullin addresses this in his documentary noting that there is something different about this city and India as whole as they have a tolerance for photos being taken of them, more than any other country around the world. There is no doubt that Don McCullin’s work is one of the best in narrative telling. His career has shown some of the best composed photographs of our time. But there is something to say about a whole well-rounded representation of a place. Documentation like these reinforce the idea of the East being poor, helpless and struggling to survive.
Looking beyond the misrepresentation, I think McCullin’s work to tell narratives, show the beauty and record human existence is something that is special to the world of photography. His work is technically one of the most skilled and revealing pieces of work I have seen, and his stance as one of the best photographers of our time holds true.
Citations
Albino boy, Biafra | 100 photographs | the most Influential images of all time. (n.d.). Retrieved April 04, 2021, from http://100photos.time.com/photos/don-mccullin-albino-boy-biafra
Bangladesh war of Independence. (n.d.). Retrieved April 04, 2021, from https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Bangladesh_War_of_Independence
Booth, C. (Director). (n.d.). The world’s Best Photojournalist: Sir Don McCullin in Kolkata [Video file]. Retrieved April 02, 2021, from https://www.canon-europe.com/pro/stories/don-mccullin-kolkata-film/
Canon Europe. (n.d.). The world’s Best Photojournalist: Sir Don McCullin in Kolkata. Retrieved April 04, 2021, from https://www.canon-europe.com/pro/stories/don-mccullin-kolkata-film/
Chitrita Banerji. (n.d.). Retrieved April 04, 2021, from http://www.chitritabanerji.com/
Don McCullin · biography. (n.d.). Retrieved April 04, 2021, from https://donmccullin.com/don-mccullin/