PUBLIC RIGHT TO KNOW Iconic war imagery

Don McCullin supporting the Freedom of the Press: 100 Photographs, edited by Jean- François Julliard. , Reporters sans Fron- tières, 2009, 144 pp. ISBN 2915536783

HE PARIS-based global media Tfreedom group Reporters sans Frontières has carved out an innova- tive niche for its brand of fund-rais- ing books in defence of the endan- gered journalist species. The latest addition is another fi ne collector’s item—100 iconic war and social dis- order imagery from British photo- journalist Don McCullin. His Sleeping with Ghosts col- lection (1995), a retrospective of has recorded with empathy, fl air and his , particularly compassion moments of anger and struck a chord with me. And this despair, but also unspeakable cruelty RSF collection of some of his most infl icted by mankind on their fellows. famous photographs (and many lesser As Contact Press Images president known ones) is just as evocative, at Robert Pledge notes in one of the times chilling, filled with anguish introductory passages about the self- and suffering, or just disturbingly taught photographer: refl ective. Having borne witness for more A gaze charged with disbelief, com- than four decades of the most shatter- passion, and solidarity with the weak- ing confl icts of our times, including est, the destitute, the outcast and vic- the War, McCullin shares tims of unacceptable circumstance. an integral part of the history of Cyprus divided, Congo lacerated, photography alongside Magnum leg- Vietnam bombarded, the Middle East torn, Biafra starving, ends such as and Henri- murdered, Salvador in uprising, Cartier-Bresson, as well as Gamma’s Northern Ireland in revolt, Iraq tor- , his friend and rival. tured, Darfur razed. (p. 11) His observation through the lens

238 PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW 15 (2) 2009 PUBLIC RIGHT TO KNOW While the ghosts from confl ict zones and social realism in Papua New may be prolifi c and haunting, Mc- Guinea. All his images used in this Cullin has not only photographed book were donated to support RSF. warfare, inhumanity and injustice. Now McCullin is dedicated to During his downtime periods from seeking an elusive peace, perhaps confl ict assignments, he has also tak- so poignantly portrayed in a study en remarkable pictures mirroring life of AIDS orphans in a schoolroom in in his native Britain and many global Kitwe, Zambia. The innocent children outposts. His photography includes stare questioningly out of one of the topics as wide-ranging as the 1950s closing pages as part of a section teddy boys in his own neighbour- on the social ravages of the virus in hood—London’s Finsbury Park; the southern Africa. – Dr David Robie, Beatles; painter Francis Bacon; and director of the Pacific Media the steelworks of West Hartlepool. Centre. Further afi eld, he has documented Indian pilgrimages along the banks Reference McCullin, D. (1995). Sleeping with of the Ganges, lost tribes in southern ghosts: A life’s work in photo- Ethiopia, and traces of the Roman graphy. London: Vintage. Empire around the Mediterranean Short courses: Update your writing and media skills before 2010

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