“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” – Don McCullin

I’m a big fan of the photographer Don McCullin so am super-excited about Shaped by War – a new retrospective of this work that kicks off at Salford’s Imperial War Museum North this weekend to mark his 75th year. The best exhibition I saw by far last year was also McCullin – In England, at Bradford’s National Media Museum. I like him not just for his photos but also for the obvious empathy he has for his subjects, so I’m looking forward to attending a talk with him next month as well as other events linked to the show. People in London and other cities where photography shows and lectures are regular occurrences don’t know how lucky they are. This kind of thing is a relative rarity up here.

To mark the start of the exhibition later this week, the BBC have put together an audio slideshow of McCullin’s work (below). For more about what photography means to him, check out this short online interview put together as part of last year’s Bradford show.