Don McCullin: In England

Don McCulling is an amazing internationally known photojournalist who has spent a large part of his career focusing on the 'underside of society, and his photographs have depicted the unemployed, downtrodden and the impoverished.'

In England was an exhibition as well as a book of Don McCullin's work taken from a body of work that spans over half a century whereby he looked at all sorts of different aspects of Britain as a country and the people who inhabit it.

There are a couple of images in particular of his that really stand out for me and particularly in terms of this project. the first is this image of a white woman holding a swastika at a National Socialist rally in 1962 while a policeman looks down on her.



The second image is of two children standing in front of a piece of anti nazi graffiti on a wall, taken when he was documenting the estates of Bradford in the 1970s



The two images deal with different sides of the argument on race issues that were rife in the 1960's and 70's but are equally powerful as images/photographs, and they both go to show what a great photographer Don McCullin is. He managed to capture the emotions that both sets of people so well, as the feeling of contempt and hate being displayed by the woman at the socialist rally is so apparent to see. I think that McCullin really managed to capture Britain at that time and the attitudes people had towards race and the varying discussions that arise as a result. He applied this skill to all of the subjects he photographed and I have really enjoyed looking at his work and taking in what Britain was like long before I was ever around.