“Photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures”

“I suppose I would have become a criminal if I hadn’t had discovered photography. It was my salvation.”

(both Don McCullin)

I just went to Bradford for the first time. It’s actually a very pleasant town centre, but the best thing about it – for me at least – is the National Media Museum, which has just opened a new Don McCullin exhibition (In England), to run September.
McCullin’s probably most famous for his pictures from conflicts like Vietnam and Lebanon, but his England images are just as wonderful. There are many iconic images from his time working for The Observer and Sunday Times, and showing the social division, poverty and squalor as well as the eccentricities of the British during the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
There are more recent pictures as well, but it’s the record of working class life in London, Bradford, Liverpool and other places that got me the most. There’s also a really interesting video interview with him as part of the show, which actually can be viewed online here.