Don McCullin Teacher’s Notes B2

Don McCullin’s black-and-white photographs bear witness to the major conflicts the world has been experiencing for the last 60 years. From Cyprus to Syria, from Vietnam to Biafra, from the construction of the Berlin Wall to the conflict in Ulster, his (still ongoing) career as a photojournalist has enabled him to witness and record the pain, sufferings and cruelty the various wars of the last decades have generated. At home, he has also shot photographs showing the poor and downtrodden in derelict urban areas, as well as the impact left onto English countryside by modernity. The first photojournalist to knighted, laureate of many prizes and awards, the Britain is currently holding a retrospective exhibition retracing his career. The subject fits the cycle terminale’s “Power, types and sites” notion and lead to a reflection on the power of pictures and the importance of the press as a (counter-)power. In this B2 sequence, students read extracts of an interview of Don McCullin to get to know him and anticipate a few aspects of his work. Then, they watch a series of photographs and select a few to comment on. Finally, they watch a video dealing with the Tate exhibition, before writing an article presentation about Don McCullin, his work, the exhibition and the importance of .

Culture, language and structures they are going to get acquainted with n Don McCullin the photographer through several n photojournalism extracts from an interview he gave on n world history from the second half of the the occasion of the exhibition. Assign 20th century onwards them Activity 1. They read through the n vocabulary related to conflicts, poverty interview and collect information about and the press Donald McCullin’s biography, his work and his vision of (photo-)journalism. They also Introducing the topic – Reading and anticipate, imagine and discuss the kind of Speaking photographs they are about to see. n McCullin’s language, as one would expect n Tell students you are about to deal with a retrospective exhibition held at of someone who grew up in London’s slums the dedicated to an English and has spent his working life in extreme photojournalist. Explain to students situations, occasionally includes a swear that before looking at some pictures, word.

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Discovering Don McCullin’s photographs Writing a review – Writing and – Speaking speaking n Project the slideshow of Don McCullin’s Students write a review about the Tate’s photographs with the captions and let exhibition dedicated to Don McCullin. To students react freely. You may ask them if help them go further, they can explore the some of these pictures surprise them, move webpage dedicated to the exhibition or them, if they like them and why. Encourage McCullin’s personal website (www.tate.org. them to develop their points and help them uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/don- gradually produce longer utterances on a mccullin and https://donmccullin.com/). given photograph. To do so, you may want Students may also record their presentations to write on the board: “Context (When? and edit a PowerPoint with a few selected Where?) – Subject? (Who? What?) – Feeling? pictures and their commentary as a (How do(es) the picture(s) make you feel? soundtrack. Activity 4 Explain!)” and point at any of those prompts to elicit further and more precise comments. Going further and getting ready for Encourage discussion and press students the oral examination – Interaction and to defend their views, develop and explicit Speaking them further whenever they disagree. n Ask the class what notion from the n In small groups, have them focus on one Cycle Terminale syllabus they could deal picture they have selected and get ready with using what they have learnt so far to present it orally. See Activity 2. Listen to about Donald McCullin and his work as a three or four presentations and encourage photojournalist. Have them justify their interactions, especially with other groups choices and elicit discussion. who worked on the same picture. n Students work in groups and prepare n Watching a report about the exhibition. a short presentation fitting the oral Show the video (www.youtube.com/ examination demands. watch?v=2x8QgGgUTBM). See what students Transcription understand and help them gradually www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x8QgGgUTBM reconstruct meaning – jot down suggestions n My name’s Don McCullin. I’m a on the board, encourage to re-organise photographer, of course. Tate Gallery has things, play the passages they struggle very kindly invited me to show some of my with again (but no more than twice) and work here, which is a great honour for me. improvise minimal pair exercises on the It’s slightly out of the ordinary, because I’m board depending on their difficulties. Have sadly known as a war photographer, which them gradually connect the words and I really hate being spoken of in that light. expressions they recognised and develop But, so what’s happened here today is we’ve their own recap. chosen, or the curator here, Simon Baker, n Go through Activity 3 with the class as a has chosen a set of my pictures that doesn’t collective recap once you’re sure they get show any signs of war, despite the fact there the gist of the video. is a section of the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961, which many people’s eyes thought was the outbreak of Third World War, or

B2 Don McCullin Teacher’s Notes |2| could have been. of England. These pictures show the cost When I was a very young photographer with, of, you know, by being a great powerful with, I wasn’t even really a photographer, industrial nation, but at the same time, I had very little experience. I mean I had someone had to suffer and that was the no experience of international affairs and a English countryside. So when you look story of such a huge calibre. I went straight at some of these industrial landscapes, to Friedrichstrasse, where the tension they’re rather harsh and brutal because between the Americans and the Russians the industrial demand on landscape was and the East Germans and really the build- wicked I mean you know it turned beautiful up was enormous. And there were tanks and countryside into, you know, mud pits and, armoured vehicles from both sides facing and slurry pits and places like that. each other. It was very serious. Well eventually I moved out of London I had a very, very close association with because I couldn’t stand being around too London, having been born in London, and many people, I needed to isolate my myself having been born on the wrong side of the from people. I was always, you know, I went tracks, as they say. And I started seeing to the wars and saw the suffering, and people sleeping in shop doorways, and then I came back and I felt I couldn’t share when I went to Third World countries, that suffering, just with my photography. people would refuse to believe there were The landscape became a kind of process poor people in England. But there are many, of healing, so that I could forget about many untold truths about this country. We wars and revolutions and dying children. had poverty. We had unemployment. We Because I was beginning to take those, had, you know, we had a class system that those memories to bed with me at night, wasn’t convenient and all kinds of things and having terrible dreams and terrible that people who lived outside of England nightmares, and feeling guilty and waking up wouldn’t have understood. in a sweat. That wasn’t doing me any good so to stand in the English countryside with So, when I started walking the streets my camera I’m harming nobody. of London and seeing people sleeping in shop doorways, even I was shocked. What I tried to do is I try to draw those people Solutions into my, my vision. I tried to make myself Activity 1 unimportant in the presence of such people, A. 1. A long career — he is 83 now. From a and I tried to let their eyes meet my eyes, poor background. Poverty (childhood) and which I think in many cases I’ve managed violence (lived with gangsters and gangs) are to succeed. I want them to see I have no part of his story. Dropped out of school aged harm, no threat to them. I want them to see 15. that I’m looking at them through a pair of 2. Known as a war photographer, but also eyes that have enormous compassion and documented poor neighbourhoods in understanding. England. Violence and conflicts are present in his work, but he also took pictures There is a section on the industrial north of landscapes, which he also qualifies

B2 Don McCullin Teacher’s Notes |3| as ‘political’ since they bear witness to social changes and tensions. Worked for . Shot black-and-white photographs because they penetrate the viewers’ memory. 3. Photojournalism must show reality “undusted”, which is important in a democracy. Today, the impression he has is that we see less and less of the world and its conflicts. Social wars and sufferings are as important as armed conflicts and should be documented as well.

Activity 3 1. a. WRONG “Sadly enough I’m known as a war photographer, which I hate being.” b. WRONG “I had no experience of international affairs.” c. RIGHT “People in Third World countries would refuse to believe there were poor people in England.” 2. People sleeping in doorways – a class system which is not convenient – poverty – to document it, you need compassion, make yourself unimportant for people to understand you are no harm to them. 3. It’s the cost to be paid to be a powerful industrial nation. It shows wicked areas. They are harsh and brutal. It shows beautiful countryside turned into mud pits and derelict areas. 4. Nightmares – a feeling of guilt – the necessity to move away from London and people. Photographing the countryside: a process of healing.

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