Sir Don McCullin has said he struggles to sleep at night because of the “poison” of what he has seen documenting some of the world's most brutal conflicts.
The 88-year-old photographer became a household name in the 1960s with his reporting on the Vietnam War.
He also documented conflicts in Cyprus, Biafra, Iraq, Cambodia and Lebanon.
Promoting his new book, Life, Death and Everything in Between, Sir Don told Prospect Magazine's Media Confidential podcast that the horror of what he saw “comes back with extreme clarity and keeps me from sleeping.”
He described it as a “poison” that is “in my blood and it still won't go away”
The photojournalist said he found solace in the landscape around where he now lives in Somerset, which he said was 'a medicine that healed me'.
But he also admitted that 'what I did in the wars was not always good'.
Sir Don McCullin has said he struggles to sleep at night because of the 'poison' of what he saw while documenting some of the world's most brutal conflicts
The 88-year-old photographer became a household name in the 1960s with his reporting on the Vietnam War. Above: A previously unpublished image of US Marines removing a wounded comrade during the Battle of Huế in the Vietnam War in 1968
Sir Don's new book contains a moving image of US Marines carrying a wounded comrade to safety during the 1968 Battle of Huế in the Vietnam War.
He was shot and seriously wounded in Cambodia and imprisoned in Uganda, and was also expelled from Vietnam.
Sir Don's other work includes searing images of poverty in Britain and the AIDS crisis in Africa.
Sir Don spoke to Media Confidential presenters Lionel Barber – the former editor of the Financial Times – and Alan Rusbridger, who was editor of The Guardian for 10 years until 2015.
The photographer also emphasized that the images he captured are not his own.
“The danger is that someone becomes greedy and selfish and you think these images are yours,” he said.
'They do not. You steal these images of people suffering in front of you.
The photojournalist said he found solace in the landscape around where he now lives in Somerset, which he said was 'a medicine that healed me'. Above: A 2021 image of a flooded field near Sir Don's home in Somerset
“So, you know, it feels like I'm walking on burning coals that are burning my feet, telling me that what I'm doing isn't always right.
“I have a conscience and I know that what I did in the wars was not always right.”
He also claimed that there is a “beauty” in conflict that most people cannot understand.
The photographer highlighted how, while in Vietnam in 1968, he saw a black soldier mourning the loss of a heroic medic who had just been shot dead by a sniper.
“There was nothing extraordinary about seeing the tears streaming down his face,” he said.
'I thought people would never believe me and they think I was being indulgent to say: you would see moments of great beauty in the war, you will see them.
Young workers seen delivering new furniture in the early morning in Kolkata, India, 1997. Sir Don's new book features 140 of his photographs
This previously published image of boys sitting on a statue of the famous Muslim historian Ibn al-Mustawfi in Arbil, Kurdistan, also appears in the new book. It dates from 1991
“And I had the best eyes in the world and I knew I saw them. And that also happens in wars, every now and then you see presents from another person.'
“War is 99 percent bad and evil and woefully wrong, but every now and then you get that moment of light that shows you something and allows you to walk away and think 'there's no hope, but there could be. ”
His new book is published on the occasion of the exhibition Don McCullin in Rome – a Retrospective.
Simon Baker, the exhibition's curator, said: 'Known for the bold, candid and always emotionally engaging perspective with which he approached a wide range of subjects, McCullin produced some of the most recognizable images of poverty, hunger and war in the history of the country. photography, but also documenting the landscape – both in Britain and abroad – with the style and passion that distinguishes all his work.'
Life, Death and Everything in Between by Don McCullin is published by GOST Books. Don McCullin in Rome – a Retrospective can be seen at Palazzo delle Esposizioni until January 28.