The 22nd edition of the La Gacilly Photo Festival in Brittany (France) is dedicated to British photography, without compromising its commitment to environmental protection.
This year, the festival is dedicating a beautiful exhibition to the renowned photographer Don McCullin, with large-format prints hung on the walls of the aptly named Garage.
The event, which is usually accompanied by conferences during its opening on the first weekend of June, offered on Saturday, June 7, the screening of Lee Shulman’s film about the famous photographer Martin Parr, simply titled I am Martin Parr, released in October 2024 and also available on Apple TV.
On this occasion, the audience was able to attend a conversation between Vincent Jolly, senior reporter for Le Figaro Magazine, and Don McCullin, who discussed both his own rich career and that of his compatriot.
Vincent Jolly: Don, what have you learned in the film about Martin Parr?
Don McCullin: I thought the film was amazing. Martin has been coming to my house two or three times this year, and I got to know him a bit better. When he first came on the scene in the 1980s, his color work was like putting the cat amongst the pigeons, as we say in England. I’m speaking from my heart, really. And then over the years, we started to understand that this man took us in another direction. You can see that there was a great deal of humor in his photography.
Vincent Jolly: In your career, you have yourself worked in England, so on both social photography and conflict photography…
Don McCullin: Of course, you can see Martin and I are totally two different people. But I’ve also spent many weekends in the English Seaside. It’s a natural place for you to look at the English, in sometimes the crudest way. I can read Martin’s pictures without the color because I know the English so well, like he knows them. I also grew up in a totally different background to Martin. I grew up in a very violent background. I went to school with violent people, or we didn’t go to school. I grew up with criminals and hard men.
Vincent Jolly: Do you, like Martin Parr, go swim on English beaches?
Don McCullin: I used to be able to swim, and now I swim like a dog.
Vincent Jolly: During your career, you have often said that you were addicted to conflict. Are you still today?
Don McCullin: Not anymore. Looking back on my life, it’s quite embarrassing that I went to all these places. I was young and I was ambitious. I wanted to make a name for myself in photography, have my name under my photographs, which would open the doors for future assignments. I realized how clumsy and foolish I was, and I picked up the guilt bill. For example, I walked into camps in the Vietnam War in 1967, ’68, ’69, ’70, and saw hundreds of dying children looking at me. I had a family of my own when I flew back to England. Those children looked at me as if I was part of an aid group that was arriving to save them. But I wasn’t. I was somebody there stealing their dying images. So I haven’t had a very comfortable ride in my life, and I deserve the way I feel now. I have to pay some price for the mistakes that I made in my life. Being a photographer doesn’t give you the right to have a successful life, and have lots of people saying great things about you. When they do, I can be incredibly uncomfortable.
Vincent Jolly: What pleases you in photography?
Don McCullin: The photographers I admire the most are the ones that do what I don’t and do what I can’t.
Vincent Jolly: If you could start your career over with everything you know today, what choices and mistakes would you like to avoid?
Don McCullin: I’ve been looking for peace for the last dozen years. I’ve been turning my attention to the Roman world. It’s a very tricky subject because I’m not a historian. I’m a photographer. I’ve always loved beautiful things despite the fact that I’ve been living in an ugly world for the last 70 years. I also go see the landscape around where I live in Somerset. I only do it in the winter when the trees are naked. There are no leaves. Just naked trees in winter. To get away from the war, I’ve taken pictures of these landscapes.Then people turn around and say: “Why do your landscapes look like war?
Vincent Jolly: Do you have a guilt problem?
Don McCullin: I do. Whatever I do, people are following my work. I often think: Are they waiting for me to make a big mistake? And will the truth come out? I’ve been hiding all kinds of things that I did in my life. I have come to the conclusion that I’m suffering from imposter syndrome. I wanted my photographs to be my voice and be the voice of the victims of war. To put it in a nutshell, I think I’ve been over rewarded for my efforts. By the way, I love photography, and it’s taken quite a hard toll on me.
Vincent Jolly: For your career, you were knighted by the Queen of England…
Don McCullin: It is an experience. It’s made no difference to my life whatsoever. I still follow all the rules of learning, I’m still a student of photography. But to stand in that dark room is sheer torture as well as absolutely extraordinary pleasure. I’m absolutely convinced that most photographers, if not all of them, suffer from a two personality problem. We are two people. We don’t know who the hell we are.
Vincent Jolly: What are your thoughts on war photography?
Don McCullin: You may be the individual person who has always been committed against war, and you only have to see what’s been going on in Gaza to think that, as photographers, we’ve stopped nothing, sadly. We’ve been through all these wars. We’ve produced and seen all these incredible images, but they haven’t stopped war.
Vincent Jolly: Then, what do you say to young photographers who now engage in war photography? Do they have to stop?
Don McCullin: If they’ve got any sense, they should keep away from the battlefield. The whole nature of war has changed because of drones. I’ve been very fortunate to stay alive and to continue my life. But I’d like to say one thing tonight. In 1961, I once read that 1000 journalists and photographers had been killed covering warfare, ever. And that was in 1961. Last year, I was in Bayeux, talking about the current situation, and there was a ceremony commemorating dead journalists. I can tell you there were still a few more since that 1961 figure. So there is no future in covering wars in my opinion.
Don McCullin is exhibited at the 22nd annual La Gacilly Photography Festival, entitled “So British,” and on view until October 5, 2025. More information here.
