Don McCullin Shaped by War – at the Imperial War Museum in Manchester

While in Manchester recently I took a look at the Don McCullin exhibition; Shaped by War, at the Imperial War Museum North.

Cyprus, Lebanon, Vietnam, Cambodia ….. these days we think of them as exciting travel destinations but when Don McCullin covered them as a war photographer it was more like the holiday from hell.

The places he’s been, the photos he’s taken, are a roll-call of the major world conflicts of the 1960s and 70s, the ones that Britain was largely a bystander in but which these powerful images make it difficult to turn away from.

Don McCullin – War photographer

In Vietnam 1968 Don McCullin joined US Marines in the battle for Hue, and was in Biafra in 1969 to cover the civil war and subsequent famine.

In 1971 he was in Bangladesh photographing refugees in the midst of a monsoon typhoid epidemic and in the early 1970s he covered Northern Ireland followed by civil war in Lebanon in 1976.

Many of Don McCullin’s most powerful images come from the period when he worked for the Sunday Times newspaper, shooting in black and white, which he felt was more powerful for war photography. As he put it;

‘I always thought colour magazines were a form of fruit salad after the main course. One never thought we’d get much recognition being the desert of the organisation.’

The Don McCullin exhibition

This excellent exhibition covers Don McCullin’s progression as a war photographer with videos of him speaking about his experiences and memorabilia such as the helmet he wore in Vietnam and his battered Nikon camera which once stopped a bullet in Cambodia that was meant for him.

The exhibition emphasized to me how it’s not possible to be exposed to such danger, grief and violence without being damaged by it oneself. In his later assignments, Don McCullin became a self-confessed war junkie.

He witnessed children starving when his own were safe at home, saw fellow photographers killed beside him and experienced more than one near-miss of his own.  He was devastated when he was refused permission to sail with the British task force and cover the Falklands conflict.

Don McCullin for Christian Aid

What was most moving and uplifting for me, however, was the part of the exhibition documenting Don McCullin’s work with the charity Christian Aid to raise awareness of those in Africa suffering from HIV and Aids.

His visit to Zambia where a quarter of the adult population are infected with HIV led to an exhibition of his work at the United Nations and a few years later he returned to meet some of the the people he had photographed, a video of which was included in the exhibition.

These days, Don McCullin’s work features haunting landscapes and still-life rather than scenes of war.

Who would think that war could be so fascinating? But the Imperial War Museum is not about killing but about how war affects the lives of those caught up in it and presents a fascinating social history.

The Imperial War Museum North in Manchester

The Imperial War Museum is in the regenerated area  of the Salford Quays close to Manchester city centre, and is on the other side of the Manchester Ship Canal from The Lowry arts centre that we visited earlier in the day.

Designed by world-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind it presents an angular and uncompromising modern steel exterior with fragmented shapes representing the world at war.

Inside the main museum area is a large open space with smaller silos within it that house displays on different themes, such as women at war and propaganda. At regular intervals throughout the day, this space is cleverly brought alive by the Big Picture light and sound show.

We sat on benches around the perimeter as the museum came to life with a soundscape of music, projected images, the sounds of war and the recorded voices of those who lived through it. We were listening to the voices of children but other shows focus on the themes of Weapons of war and the War at home.

Standing exhibits and hands-on displays at Imperial War Museum

We heard the excitement at a day off when the school had been flattened by a bomb, the stress at the train station of children being evacuated with mothers crying, the boy soldiers who were desperate to enlist even though they were under age to experience the thrill of the fight and the child soldiers who were taken against their will to join the army if their parents couldn’t pay up.

In addition to the standing exhibits there are hands-on displays and changing exhibitions that are aimed at all different age groups. My husband had our son here on a previous visit to Manchester and he’d found it fascinating.

There’s plenty of food for thought as well as the real stuff in the café overlooking the Quays with a wooden Indian Elephant. The museum is also free although you may like to make a donation or buy a guide as your contribution to keeping it that way.

Creative Tourist in Manchester

My visit to Manchester was sponsored by CreativeTourist.com who are your best source of information for all the creative happenings in the Museums and galleries of Manchester.

All Don McCullin images are copyright at the Imperial War Museum and may not be reproduced without permission. Other photos are my own.

More Manchester articles to enjoy

Getting to know LS Lowry at The Lowry in Manchester
Pavement poetry in Manchester
Leonardo’s bicycle at MOSI in Manchester

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com.

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