Exhibition

Today we visited Tate Britain in London to see the Don McCullin exhibition.

Many of the images are harrowing (war, famine, etc) but they are superb photographs.  They certainly convey the horror of conflict, and how cruel man can be to man. 

They are also amazing examples of brilliant composition.  McCullin is immensely skilled at  choosing a viewpoint and selecting what to include or exclude from the picture to achieve a simple, balanced composition even from a complex scene in what must often be stressful and difficult circumstances.  He truly deserves his reputation as an outstanding photographer.

The exhibition covers his 60 years of photographing world events, and includes less harrowing, but still quite tough, pictures  from his early years in Finsbury Park, of homeless people in the East End of London and of the North of England at a time when mines and factories were closing down.  The exhibition finishes with some of his landscapes and still life images, still printed in his dark, foreboding style.

A notable feature of this extensive exhibition is that all the prints (all monochrome - although some of his colour images are displayed in a projection room) were printed by McCullin himself in his own darkroom.

A thoroughly recommended exhibition.