EXHIBITION

Don McCullin interview: ‘These are sights that should, and do, bring pain, shame and guilt’

The war photographer tells Rachel Campbell-Johnston about the story behind his Tate Liverpool show

Stark contrast: Protester, Cuban Missile Crisis, Whitehall, London 1962
Stark contrast: Protester, Cuban Missile Crisis, Whitehall, London 1962
DON MCCULLIN
The Times

We are in the midst of a bewildering war. Our enemy is silent, intangible, invisible. Our atavistic responses are useless. A virus cannot be clubbed, stabbed or bombed. So what does Don McCullin, the veteran war photographer, make of it? He has, after all, borne witness to pretty much every big conflict that has ravaged our planet over the course of the past 60 years.

“Covid?” he snorts contemptuously. “I couldn’t give a sod about it.” He is perfectly aware that he is in the firing line. “I have my 85th birthday on the ninth of October, so really I should have been in an old people’s home years ago.” He has already had a quadruple heart bypass. He suffers from arthritis. Years of exposure