Don McCullin: Life, Death and Everything in Between

Don McCullin: Life, Death and Everything in Between

at Gazi, Athens.

47 images from Don McCullin's book, Life, Death and Everything in Between, which document humanity's most poignant moments, from the depths of conflict and despair to glimpses of resilience and beauty.

McCullin is particularly recognised for his war photography and images of urban strife. His career, which began in 1959, has specialised in examining the underside of society, and his photographs have depicted the unemployed, downtrodden and impoverished.

Between 1966 and 1984, he worked as an overseas correspondent for the Sunday Times Magazine, recording ecological and human-made catastrophes such as wars, among them Biafra in 1968, and victims of the African Aids Epidemic. His hard-hatting coverage of the Vietnam War and the Northern Ireland conflict is held in particularly high regard.

In 1982, the British government refused to grant McCullin a press pass to cover the Falklands War, claiming the boat was full. At the time, he believed it was because the Thatcher government felt his images might be too disturbing politically.

He spoke of his approach to entering war zones: 'I have risked my life endless times, and ended up in hospital with all kinds of burns and shell wounds. I have those reptile eyes that see behind and in front of me. I'm constantly trying to stay alive. I'm aware of warfare, of hidden mines'.

Some of the photographs of the photographs I took, are spoiled with too much reflection. I was tempted not to include them, but I so wanted a record of them.

A mother with her new pram and baby in the steel town of Consett, (County Durham, England, 1974).

Tormented, Unhoused Irishman, (Spitalfields, London, 1970).

Unemployed Men Gathering Coal from the Shore, (West Hartlepool, County Durham, 1963)

Turkish Cypriot defender leaving the side entrance of a cinema, (Limassol, Cyprus, 1964)

Women and children fleeing an impeding massacre, (Karantina, East Beirut, Lebanon, 1976)

Cambodian soldiers with anti-tank gun. (Cambodia, 1970)

Sagar Island, (Delta Ganges River, India)

Woman with clay lip plate from the Mursi tribe, (Southern Ethiopia, 2006)





Blind Man with Leprosy, (Sonepur Mela, State of Bihar, India, 1987)

looking closer

Early morning at the Kumbh Mela, (Allahabad, India, 1989)

The holy festival, (Sagar Island, Junction of the Ganges and Grahmaputra rivers, India, 1977)

Horse market at Sonepur Mela, (India, 1987)

Surma tribe, (Omo Valley, southern Ethiopia, 2003-2004)

Officer Peter Osadebe addressing one of his dead soldiers during the Nigerian-Biafran War, (Biafra, 1968)

looking closer

Nurses attending a very badly burnt child, injured by napalm, (Saigon, Vietnam, 1968)

US Marines plundering possessions of a dead North Vietnamese soldier, (Hue, Vietnam, 1968)





looking closer