"One of the things that does disturb me is that some documentary photography is now being presented as art. Although I am hugely honoured to have been one of the first photographers to have their work bought and exhibited by the Tate gallery, I feel ambiguous about my photographs being treated as art. I really can't talk of the people in my war photographs as the subjects of art. They are real. They are not arranging themselves for the purposes of display. They are people whose suffering I have inhaled and that I've felt bound to record. But it's the record of the witness that is important, not the artistic impression. I have been greatly influenced by art, that is true, but I don't see this kind of photography itself as being art."
-- Don McCullin, Unreasonable Behavior
I really enjoyed
this book, a surprisingly unsentimental journey through pretty much some of the worst places, events, and outright slaughters of the 20th century, even into Syria in 2006. My only complaint is that the selection of photos, while stunning, is smaller than it should have been.
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