I intend in this following essay to show how much of Don McCullins work, throughout his career, represents pictures of people rather than pictures of war, as Edward Steichen said, " the real mission of photography is explaining man to himself ". I feel that a lot of McCullins work is more often about the social circumstances of people, with war and suffering, often, simply a background to the subject of people making the most of things, even though the lions share of these social situations do happen amongst the wars and famines that have blighted the twentieth century.

1 - The first shot I intend to look at is called 'The Guvnors', a striking picture of post-war youth. This picture started McCullins photographic career.

At first glance the picture seems instantly recognisable, Gangsters, catching that rugged style of 50's London that film has often tried to recreate.

Although the "Guvnors" themselves are posed, you instantly see that this is real, sensing that these people are real gangsters. The fact that these young men are pictured not in a nightclub or in the back of a big black jaguar

4 - The next picture is closer to home, everyone knows about the troubles in Northern Ireland. Many people know about the war zone that of the early seventies was the "Bog side", the "Bog side" is a Catholic stronghold of the Derry. The picture is of a British soldier taking a covering position on a street corner as a young man nonchalantly walks by.

This picture of a small albino boy, almost skeletal in stance, clutching a French corned beef tin that looks empty, the boy is dressed in torn clothes and is away from the other children. Looking into the boys eyes we sense a lack of hope, he seems completely accepting of his circumstances. You observe in the picture that the children in the shot are not wearing any clothes, whereas the albino boy is covered as well as could be expected, its as if he's been hiding himself, or being hidden, because of his evident difference. To me the picture really shows the scene as it is, although these children are starving and dying they still have their beliefs and prejudices. As McCullin himself said, " to be a staving Biafran orphan was to be in a most pitiful situation, but to be a starving Biafran albino orphan was to be in a position beyond description."

, as is the common stereotype, but in the remains of a bombed out building, with its fallen timber and burnt mattresses, completely stripped of all metals or indeed anything else of any worth, shows a gritty reality which isn't often associated with this kind of person at this time.

The most striking aspect of this picture is the grieving wife, she is staring into the lens from the chest of the man. Although, in the picture there is a real sense of tragedy, for me there is also something else. The women on the dead man and the living man aren't screaming there is a sense of expectancy.

The outstretched soldier tell his own story, this is a soldier at war, a man fighting for his country on it's own soil, effectively fighting against his own people, some of whom don't want his presence. When looking at this picture you have to bare in mind that in the early seventies, Northern Ireland was essentially a war zone in contrast to recently past years, parts of Derry were no go zones for British troops who had been damned by the IRA. The simple fact that the soldier had to take a covering position whilst the civilian man walks as if nothing is unusual, to me it describes a large part of the problem in Northern Ireland, it makes you understand where the differences, especially for the Catholic population, lie, although in the seventies the British army was fighting as many protestants as Catholics, they were still perceived as a British protestant army.

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Approximate Word count = 1998
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)