17+ Don McCullin Quotes On Photography

Don McCullin is a British photojournalist and documentary photographer. He is best known for his war photography and images of urban strife. His career has spanned over five decades and he has documented conflicts in Vietnam, Northern Ireland, Cambodia and the Middle East. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Don McCullin on photography.

I only use a camera like I use a toothbrush. It does the job. — Don McCullin

The real truth of life is on the streets. Photograph the daily lives of people, and how they exist, and how they fight for space and time and pleasure. — Don McCullin

Photography's a case of keeping all the pores of the skin open, as well as the eyes. A lot of photographers today think that by putting on the uniform, the fishing vest, and all the Nikons, that that makes them a photographer. But it doesn't. It's not just seeing. It's feeling. — Don McCullin

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

You cannot walk on the water of hunger, misery, and death. You have to wade through to record them. — Don McCullin

Sometimes it felt like I was carrying pieces of human flesh back home with me, not negatives. It's as if you are carrying the suffering of the people you have photographed. — Don McCullin

There's always a threat surrounding the things you love — Don McCullin

I don't want to die for a few pictures. I want to live for every sunrise I can clap my eyes on; I want to see my family get older; I want to see the world try and get a bit more peaceful and understanding, which unfortunately I don't think I'll ever see. — Don McCullin

Photography has been very, very generous to me, but at the same time has damaged me. — Don McCullin

I feel shabby - because I've made a name, quite a good name, out of photography. And I still find myself asking the same questions: Who am I? What am I supposed to be? What have I done? — Don McCullin

I want to be the toughest photographer in the world. — Don McCullin

I am a professed atheist, until I find myself in serious circumstances. Then I quickly fall on my knees, in my mind if not literally, and I say : 'Please God, save me from this.' — Don McCullin

Seeing, looking at what others cannot bear to see is what my life is all about. — Don McCullin

Photography is the truth if it’s being handled by a truthful person. — Don McCullin

I met an Englishwoman in Africa. She said she became a doctor because she saw one of my pictures. That’s all I want – just one doctor in Africa. — Don McCullin

I am sometimes accused by my peers of printing my pictures too dark. All I can say is that it goes with the mood of melancholy that is induced by witnessing at close quarters such intractable situations of conflict and joylessness. — Don McCullin

Photography isn't about seeing, it's about feeling. If I don't have some kind of feeling for what I'm shooting, how can I expect the person who looks at it to feel anything? — Don McCullin

Life Lessons by Don McCullin

1. Don McCullin's work teaches us the importance of bearing witness to the suffering of others and the power of photography to capture and convey the realities of conflict and poverty.
2. His work also shows us the importance of empathy and compassion when documenting the lives of others, and the importance of understanding the context of the stories we tell.
3. Finally, McCullin's work highlights the power of photography to move people and to inspire action and change.