McCullin

I have just seen the most amazing documentary about the photographer Don McCullin. It is hard to describe the intensity of the film which charts McCullins' career capturing war, famine and ultimately humanity in every conceivable form. It's incredibly moving and distressing but it is also so very important, all brilliantly knitted together with newsreel and moving image film.
McCullin is a marvellous photographer, and he became obsessed by conflict (and the adrenalin it produced), putting himself in situations which were frankly suicidal.  But he did this in order to tell the truth, to tell real stories from the front line, to render the pain and suffering in all its gore and desperation.
Implicitly trusted and published by (Sir) Harold Evans, then editor of The Times and bank rolled by a fiercely independent owner, the photographs would form the basis of accounts from Cyprus, Vietnam, Lebanon, Cambodia and Biafra . These images left people reeling back home, trying to digest their breakfast on a quiet sunday morning.
McCullin struggled with the situations, and is obviously mentally scarred, but he is a true artist in my view. He seems to have had no control over impulse to shoot these images, he just had to do it.
I was slightly concerned by Argo, the recent Oscar winner, and its depiction of conflict, now I just think it is downright awful and actually dangerous.
The world needs more people like Don McCullin, and more people with the integrity and foresight to fund and produce stuff that is truly important.
Remarkable, (and not to be missed).